CNN
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When the newly elected Pope Francis returned to the entrance desk of his resort in Rome to personally settle his invoice a day after being launched to cheering crowds in St. Peter’s Sq. in 2013, it was a primary glimpse into the modesty that might come to outline his papacy.
However for one actual property developer turned actuality tv star observing developments from his penthouse in Manhattan, it was an indication of one thing else.
“I don’t like seeing the Pope standing on the checkout counter (entrance desk) of a resort in an effort to pay his invoice,” Donald Trump, nonetheless years from mounting his first presidential bid, wrote on Twitter. “It’s not Pope-like!”
There was little in frequent between now-President Trump and Pope Francis, who died Monday at 88. The 2 males sparred from afar on problems with immigration and the setting, adopted divergent approaches to the splendid trappings of their respective places of work, and lived vastly totally different sorts of lives.
“That’s why I’ll by no means be Pope!” Trump responded to a commenter on his submit in 2013, who noticed “the distinction between the Pope and also you is the Pope doesn’t need to always brag how nice he’s.”
But for all the apparent variations, there was some overlap in how Francis and Trump arrived at their positions, and the way they considered their roles.
Every was elected as an outsider and delivered to their workplace a pledge to signify society’s forgotten: for Trump, the American staff who he mentioned Washington handed over in an period of globalization; and for Francis, the poor and marginalized usually left to the facet of a fast-changing world.
Each additionally sought dramatic modifications to the establishments they ran: the sprawling federal authorities for Trump, and the billion-person robust Catholic Church for Francis.
“He’s an excellent man who cherished the world. And he particularly cherished folks that have been having a tough time. And that’s good with me,” Trump mentioned Monday after ordering flags on federal buildings lowered to half workers.
Trump despatched his like to American Catholics earlier than rapidly turning his remarks towards his energy amongst Catholic voters.
“We love you all, we’re with you all. They have been with me by the election, as you understand, very strongly,” Trump mentioned on the annual White Home Easter Egg Roll. “It’s simply an honor to have the assist of the Catholics. I really feel very badly for them as a result of they love the pope.”
After they met throughout Trump’s first time period on the Vatican in 2017 — their solely face-to-face encounter — Trump and Francis had already been tangling on the problem of immigration after Francis declared anybody who builds a wall to maintain out migrants was “not a Christian.” Trump had spent the 2016 presidential marketing campaign vowing to assemble a wall alongside the Southern US border to maintain migrants out.
These variations have been put apart throughout Trump’s go to, the place he was accompanied by his spouse Melania, who wore a standard black veil. Each leaders appeared decided to not let their dispute spoil the encounter.
And like most presidents earlier than him, Trump emerged from his assembly with the pope showing starstruck.
“He’s one thing, he’s actually good. We had a improbable assembly and we had a improbable tour, it was actually lovely,” Trump mentioned.
Trump and the primary girl had arrived to the Vatican a couple of half-hour earlier, his lengthy motorcade and armored black SUV a stark distinction to the blue Ford Focus that Francis himself had arrived in to work that day.
The assembly was not completely devoid of politics. The pope offered Trump a duplicate of his influential encyclical doc on preserving the setting, which was interpreted as an try by Francis to encourage Trump to undertake stronger efforts at combatting local weather change. (It didn’t seem efficient; Trump withdrew from the Paris local weather accord just a few weeks later).
Like many world leaders who watch Trump from afar, Francis discovered Trump simpler to speak to than his harsh language on the marketing campaign path may need steered.
He lightened the temper when shaking Melania Trump’s hand, asking her in Italian, “Did you give him potica to eat?” — referring to the Slovenian dessert few might think about the glamorous former mannequin whipping up within the White Home kitchen.
Francis additionally handed Trump a medallion etched with the picture of an olive tree, which he defined was “an emblem of peace.”
“We will use peace,” Trump responded. As they parted methods, Trump instructed him: “I gained’t overlook what you mentioned.”
Influential conferences with Obama and Biden
The three US presidents who met Francis all discovered themselves moved by the expertise in several methods. President Barack Obama took the uncommon step of touring to Joint Base Andrews to greet Francis initially of the pope’s blockbuster go to to america in 2015.
Later, the pope led a brief parade in his open-air popemobile across the South Garden, which was crowded with 1000’s who had come to witness a uncommon papal go to to the White Home, some carrying infants for the pope to kiss.
The cultural second couldn’t be denied a number of months in a while Halloween, when the kid of an administration official arrived to the annual White Home trick-or-treating occasion dressed because the pontiff, full with a tiny white automotive.
It was on that go to that Francis met privately with members of then-Vice President Joe Biden’s household within the fast aftermath of his son Beau Biden’s demise from most cancers. Counseling the Biden’s inside an airplane hanger on the Philadelphia Worldwide Airport, Francis “supplied us with extra consolation that even he, I feel, will perceive,” Biden would later recount.
After he grew to become president, Biden traveled to Rome amid a raging debate contained in the US Catholic Church over whether or not he and different politicians who assist abortion rights ought to obtain communion. Afterward, Biden mentioned Francis known as him a “good Catholic” and that he ought to proceed receiving the sacrament.
Final yr, as he was getting ready to depart workplace beneath a cloud of disappointment following his exit from the 2024 race and his vp’s loss to Trump, Biden had deliberate to go to Rome once more to fulfill Francis. The journey was canceled amid wildfires in Los Angeles, however in his remaining days as president Biden awarded Francis the nation’s highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Trump and Francis would by no means meet once more after their 2017 encounter. After Trump was elected to a second time period, Francis took harsh purpose at his administration’s plans for mass deportations, warning such a step would deprive migrants of their inherent dignity and “will finish badly.”
It was a exceptional rebuke, issued in a letter to US bishops. It appeared to take purpose at Vice President JD Vance for his protection of deportations on theological grounds.
“Christian love is just not a concentric enlargement of pursuits that little by little prolong to different individuals and teams,” the pope wrote, responding to Vance’s assertion that individuals ought to care for their household, communities and nation earlier than increasing care to others.
In some methods, the rupture appeared to mirror a rising rift between traditionalist American Catholics and the Vatican beneath Francis, which had sought to be extra inclusive of same-sex {couples}, girls and different teams.
Nonetheless, the discord didn’t seem to seep into Vance’s assembly with Francis on Easter Sunday, only a day earlier than he died. Vance seems to have been the final world chief Francis met earlier than his demise. He sat briefly with the pope in a reception room on the Casa Santa Marta, the Vatican guesthouse the place he has lived since his election in 2013.
Vance, who has known as himself a “child Catholic” after changing to the religion as an grownup, was on Vatican grounds on Sunday for lower than 20 minutes, and the assembly hadn’t been confirmed forward of time. Throughout their brief session, the pope gifted the vp a tie, rosaries and three large chocolate Easter eggs for Vance’s three youngsters.
“I pray for you day-after-day,” Vance might be heard telling the Pontiff as they sat collectively on the Vatican.
This story has been up to date with Trump’s remarks on Monday.
