Day Donald won over frosty Pope (with a little help from first ladies)
They’ve not been too kind about each other in the past.
And as Donald Trump met the Pope for the first time yesterday, it got off to a rather awkward start – with the Catholic leader scowling next to a beaming Mr Trump.
But by the end of their meeting in Rome, there were broad grins all round as the Pope also met the President’s wife Melania and daughter Ivanka, who dressed in traditional mantilla veils.
Pope Francis and Mr Trump clashed during last year’s US presidential election over the environment, capitalism and Mr Trump’s vow to build a wall along the Mexican border.
The Pope rejected building walls rather than bridges between people as ‘not Christian’, which prompted Mr Trump to attack him as ‘disgraceful’. however, the pair met for a private meeting at 8.30am yesterday, and posed for pictures in the vatican’s Sala del Tronetto – the ‘little throne room’.
The Pope, who is often jovial when meeting world leaders, initially glowered as he stood next to the President. But he warmed to the occasion, after welcoming the President’s wife and daughter.
While Melania is First Lady, Ivanka has also been said to fulfil official duties linked to that role since Mr Trump took office. At the end of the meeting the Argentine- born Pope even engaged in lighthearted banter with the Trumps.
‘What do you give him to eat? Putizza?’ he asked Mrs Trump in Spanish, referring to a pastry from her native Slovenia. But appar- ently misunderstanding him, she replied: ‘Pizza? yes.’
The vatican said the pair had ‘cordial discussions’ about international affairs, particularly the Middle east and the protection of Christians there. And Mr Trump later tweeted: ‘honour of a lifetime to meet his holiness Pope Francis. I leave the vatican more determined than ever to pursue PeACe in our world.’