WASHINGTON — The day before he died, in his final public address, Pope Francis expressed an Easter Sunday message of unity and an appeal for the marginalized and migrants. “All of us,” he proclaimed, “are children of God!”
In a dramatically different message Sunday, President Donald Trump issued an insult-laced post wishing a happy Easter to his opponents, including “Radical Left Lunatics,” “WEAK and INEFFECTIVE Judges and Law Enforcement Officials,” and former President Joe Biden, “our WORST and most Incompetent President.”
Some of the fundamental differences between the U.S. president and the late pope — not only their divergent styles but their positions on migration, the environment and poverty — will come into sharper focus as Trump travels to Rome on Friday for Francis’ funeral, to be held Saturday morning in St. Peter’s Square.
David Gibson, director of the Center on Religion and Culture at Fordham University in New York, put it this way: “Obviously, it’s been a fraught relationship.”
Relationship eroded
Things weren’t great between Trump and the pope during Trump’s first term, from 2017 to 2021. But, says Gibson, “Trump was even worse with the Vatican because of how much more aggressive it has been on every level, against migrants, against international aid.”
The Argentine pontiff and the American president sparred early on over immigration. In 2016, Francis, alluding to then-candidate Trump, called anyone who builds a wall to keep out migrants “not Christian.” Trump called the comment “disgraceful.”
Despite the billionaire former reality star’s divergences over the years with Francis, who was known for a humble style, Trump’s support has gradually risen among American Catholics. He courted them in his last presidential campaign, and many influential bishops are among his supporters.
Trump, who has identified himself as a “non-denominational Christian,” has long counted Christians, especially evangelical Christians, among his key blocs of support. His policies on abortion, including his role in appointing three of the five U.S. Supreme Court justices who overturned national abortion rights, deepened his support among Christians, including many conservative Catholics.
His politics are also closely aligned with many conservative U.S. Catholic bishops, who were often at odds with Francis’ more progressive approach to leading the church.
The Republican president implored Catholics last year to vote for him. In October, when he addressed the Al Smith charity dinner in New York, which raises millions of dollars for Catholic charities, Trump said: “You gotta get out and vote. And Catholics, you gotta vote for me.”
Many Catholics did. In the 2024 election, Trump won the Catholic vote, according to AP VoteCast, a survey of more than 120,000 voters. In 2020, the Catholic vote was evenly split between Joe Biden, but in 2024, 54 percent of Catholic voters supported Trump and 44 percent supported Kamala Harris.
For Trump, Catholics’ support didn’t earn Francis’
But while Trump may have won the Catholic vote, he never won over Francis.
Vice President JD Vance, a Catholic who met briefly with Francis the day before he died, dismissed the pontiff’s disagreements with the administration, telling reporters this week that the pope was “a much broader figure” than American politics — a man who led a church with 1.4 billion members worldwide. / AP