Francis: Trump is not Christian
DONALD Trump got into a new fight last night, this time crossing swords with the Pope as the Pontiff suggested the Republican presidential frontrunner was not Christian because of his radical views on immigration.
Speaking on the papal plane after a trip to Mexico, Francis attacked the Republican presidential candidate’s promises to deport more immigrants and force Mexico to pay for a wall along the 3,200km border.
‘A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not Christian,’ said Francis when asked about Mr Trump.
Building such a wall, he added, ‘is not in the Gospel’.
The New York tycoon wants to deport nearly 11million illegal immigrants, many of them Mexicans or – like the Argentinian pontiff – from Latin America.
Mr Trump caused outrage by claiming that Mexico sent rapists and criminals to the US.
The Pope insisted he was not trying to influence US voters but his intervention in the already highly charged campaign provoked a sharp response from Mr Trump.
‘For a religious leader to question a person’s faith is disgraceful,’ he told a campaign rally in South Carolina.
Discussing ISIS, the bombastic billionaire said the terror group’s ‘primary goal is to get to the Vatican’. He added: ‘If and when the Vatican is attacked, the Pope would only wish and have prayed that Donald Trump would have been elected president.’
The Pope’s attack could hamper Mr Trump in his battle with conservative rival Ted Cruz for the support of evangelicals, a crucial voting bloc among Republican supporters.
Calling himself a ‘proud Christian’, Mr Trump went on to accuse the Pope of being a pawn of the Mexican government, which wants ‘to continue to rip off the United States’.