(AFP) – President Donald Trump on Thursday hailed the election of Pope Leo XIV, the first American-born head of the Catholic Church, as a “great honor” for the United States.
“Congratulations to Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, who was just named Pope. It is such an honor to realize that he is the first American Pope. What excitement, and what a Great Honor for our Country,” Trump said on his Truth Social network.
“I look forward to meeting Pope Leo XIV. It will be a very meaningful moment!” Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a conservative Catholic, said in a statement that the United States “looks forward to deepening our enduring relationship” with the new pope.
Trump later spoke to reporters outside the West Wing about the new pope, who hails from Chicago. “To have the pope from America, that’s a great honor,” Trump said in brief remarks. “What greater honor could there be? We’re a little bit surprised but very happy.” The president said Vatican officials had reached out about a meeting, adding, “we’ll see what happens.”
The new pope, as a cardinal, has spoken out critically on the Trump administration’s key policy of mass deportations of migrants, as did Francis. In February, the future pope reposted on X an essay with the headline that Vice President JD Vance “is wrong” in arguing that Christians should love their family first before prioritizing the rest of the world. Vance, a recent convert to Catholicism, met Francis briefly on Easter Sunday hours before the pontiff died. Vance on X offered congratulations to the new pope: “I’m sure millions of American Catholics and other Christians will pray for his successful work leading the Church. May God bless him!”
Trump attended Pope Francis’s funeral in April with First Lady Melania Trump. He held ice-breaking talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the Vatican on the sidelines of the ceremony. But Trump also joked last week that he would like to succeed Francis, saying, “I’d like to be pope. That would be my number one choice.”
Asked Thursday if he regretted recently posting an AI-generated image of himself dressed in papal garb, Trump ignored the question and said, “What’s next?” Trump earlier said that he did not have a preference on pope but that there was a cardinal in New York who was “very good”—an apparent reference to Cardinal Timothy Dolan, known for his conservatism.
© 2024 AFP
