President Donald Trump on Monday offered brief condolences over the passing of Pope Francis, but the two men clashed repeatedly, including as far back as Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, over how to treat migrants.
“He was a good man, worked hard and loved the world,” Trump said as he made remarks at the White House Easter Egg Roll, where he announced he had ordered U.S. flags lowered to half-staff in his honor.
Trump’s first response to the pope’s death came in a short post on his conservative social media site earlier Monday: “Rest in Peace Pope Francis! May God Bless him and all who loved him!”
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Tributes were paid from leaders across the world, including Trump’s predecessors Joe Biden and Barack Obama. Biden called Pope Francis “one of the most consequential leaders of our time” and Obama complimented him as a “rare leader who made us want to be better people.”
As he’d done often over the years, on the day before he died, Pope Francis advocated for migrants in his Easter Sunday address.
“How much contempt is stirred up at times towards the vulnerable, the marginalized, and migrants!” he said. “On this day, I would like all of us to hope anew and to revive our trust in others, including those who are different than ourselves, or who come from distant lands, bringing unfamiliar customs, ways of life and ideas.”
In 2016, Pope Francis criticized Trump over his pledge to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
“A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not Christian,” Pope Francis said while on a trip to Mexico. “This is not in the gospel.”
Trump responded at the time that he was “proud to be a Christian” and that “no leader, especially a religious leader, should have the right to question another man’s religion or faith.” He also suggested the Mexican government had used him as a “pawn” and convinced him to make the remarks.
“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,” Trump said then.
This year, one day before Trump was inaugurated for his second term, Pope Francis commented on his plan to carry out mass deportations.
“If it is true, it will be a disgrace, because it makes the poor wretches who have nothing pay the bill for the imbalance. It won’t do. This is not the way to solve things,” he said.
Then, in February, the Vatican released the text of a letter Pope Francis to U.S. bishops, mostly concerning their work helping migrants.
“I have followed closely the major crisis that is taking place in the United States with the initiation of a program of mass deportations,” the pope wrote.
“The rightly formed conscience cannot fail to make a critical judgment and express its disagreement with any measure that tacitly or explicitly identifies the illegal status of some migrants with criminality. At the same time, one must recognize the right of a nation to defend itself and keep communities safe from those who have committed violent or serious crimes while in the country or prior to arrival,” he added.
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“That said, 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,” he told U.S. bishops.
Vice President JD Vance met Pope Francis on Sunday before the pontiff made what would be his final public appearance.
“I just leaned of the passing of Pope Francis. My heart goes out to the millions of Christians all over the world who loved him. I was happy to see him yesterday, though he was obviously very ill, ” Vance wrote on X. The vice president also shared a homily from the pope during the early days of the coronavirus pandemic he said he found “quite beautiful.”
The day prior, Vance met with the secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, and the foreign minister, Archbishop Paul Gallagher. The Vatican press office described the discussion as “cordial” though said there “was an exchange of opinions” on international politics “with particular attention to migrants, refugees, and prisoners.”
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Trump visited the Vatican in 2017 with first lady Melania Trump, and at the time called it an “honor of a lifetime to meet” with Pope Francis.
Trump announced on his social media platform on Monday afternoon that he and first lady Melania will be going to Pope Francis’ funeral in Rome: “We look forward to being there!”
Asked by a reporter earlier what he thought would be Pope Francis’ legacy, Trump responded: “He’s a very good man who loved — loved the world, and he especially loved people who were having a hard time. And that’s good with me.”
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