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President Donald Trump congratulated Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost on Thursday, moments after he was announced as the first U.S.-born pope to lead the Roman Catholic Church.
“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,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “What excitement, and what a Great Honor for our Country. I look forward to meeting Pope Leo XIV. It will be a very meaningful moment!”
Prevost, who is originally from Chicago, is taking on the name Leo XIV and will succeed Pope Francis, who died at age 88 last month.
Trump recently drew the ire of the Catholic Church after claiming he’d like to be the new pope to replace Francis. In an AI-generated image that he shared online earlier this month, Trump donned papal regalia.
Various Catholic officials called the move “deeply offensive,” “sad” and “unfortunate.”
Trump and Pope Francis had vastly different perspectives on topics like immigration and climate change, with Francis frequently criticizing Trump’s politics, as The New York Times reported.
The pontiff was the more progressive of the two, notably reshaping the Church into a more inclusive institution, while Trump’s policies and rhetoric are more divisive. And, as such, Francis and Trump had a complicated relationship.
“A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not Christian,” Francis said of Trump to journalists in February 2016, before Trump’s first term. “This is not the gospel.”
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Francis, along with previous popes, tended to exhibit a selflessness and desire for peace that Trump seems to lack. Trump is also notoriously not well-versed on the Bible, despite claiming to be a Christian man.
Trump and Francis only met in person once, when Trump flew out to Vatican City in 2017 for what some reporters described as an at times “awkward” meeting.
It’s unclear what the relationship between Pope Leo XIV and the Trump administration will look like. But, several outlets have reported that an online social media account appearing to belong to the new pontiff shared an article link that condemns Vice President JD Vance.
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