Trump says he deserves to go to heaven

US President Donald Trump has said he deserves to go to heaven because he has done "a hell of a lot of good for perfect people".

Trump said  at the National Prayer Breakfast that he might not get into heaven was actually a joke. He accused the media of quoting his previous remarks about the afterlife word for word, suggesting that reports had not made it clear he was joking.

"I was just having fun. I really think I probably should make it. I mean, I'm not a perfect candidate, but I did a hell of a lot of good for perfect people," he said.

Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin said something similar in 2018 at the Valdai Forum in Sochi in the context of the use of nuclear weapons: "We will go to heaven as martyrs, and they [Russia's enemies] will simply die."

Trump recently wrote a letter to Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre in which he linked his statements about intending to take control of Greenland to being overlooked for the Nobel Peace Prize.