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The relationship between President Donald Trump and Pope Francis has been marked by tension and disagreement, from mutual admiration to sharp criticism. Over the years, the two figures have clashed on issues ranging from immigration to faith, offering a window into their differing views on politics, religion, and social responsibility.
Early Admiration Turns Sour
When Pope Francis became the leader of the Catholic Church in 2013, Donald Trump, who was still a businessman at the time, initially expressed admiration for the new pope. “The new Pope is a humble man, very much like me, which probably explains why I like him so much!” Trump tweeted in December of that year, just months after Francis assumed the papacy.
However, this admiration did not last long. During the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign, Pope Francis publicly criticized one of Trump’s central proposals: the construction of a border wall between the United States and Mexico. The Pope’s remarks were pointed, declaring that “a person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not Christian.”
When Trump Called The Pope Francis Comments ‘Disgraceful’
Trump, who had already been aligning himself with evangelical Christian leaders to appeal to voters, quickly responded. He called the Pope’s comments “disgraceful,” asserting that it was inappropriate for a religious leader to question a person’s faith. Trump continued, “If and when the Vatican is attacked by ISIS, which as everyone knows is ISIS’s ultimate trophy, I can promise you that the Pope would have only wished and prayed that Donald Trump would have been President because this would not have happened.”
In May 2017, President Trump visited the Vatican for a formal meeting with Pope Francis. Trump later told reporters that the encounter had been “fantastic,” but a photograph from the meeting, which showed Trump smiling while Francis appeared somber, quickly went viral. The image symbolized the continued strain between the two figures, despite their civil exchange.
Pope Francis Critiques Trump’s Immigration Policies
The tensions between Trump and the Pope flared up again during Trump’s presidency, particularly concerning immigration. As the second Trump administration pushed forward with a crackdown on immigration, Pope Francis once again publicly rebuked the president’s policies. In a February 2018 letter addressed to U.S. Catholic bishops, the Pope referred to the program of mass deportations as a “major crisis.”
The Pope criticized policies that, according to him, associated the illegal status of migrants with criminality. He argued that deporting people—many of whom were fleeing extreme poverty, insecurity, and violence—was damaging to their dignity. “The act of deporting people who in many cases have left their own land for reasons of extreme poverty, insecurity, exploitation, persecution or serious deterioration of the environment, damages the dignity of many men and women, and of entire families, and places them in a state of particular vulnerability and defenselessness,” the Pope wrote.
This letter seemed to be a direct response to controversial statements made by Vice President Mike Pence, a Catholic, who had argued that individuals should prioritize caring for their families and communities before extending aid to others. Pope Francis disagreed, writing that “Christian love is not a concentric expansion of interests that little by little extend to other persons and groups,” emphasizing the need for compassion toward all people.
Also Read: A Global Farewell To Pope Francis: How World Leaders Remembered The Pontiff
