It’s happening. After a tenuous relationship on Twitter during the run-up to last year’s presidential election, The Vatican confirmed yesterday that President Donald Trump will meet with Pope Francis on May 24.
When the meeting was announced, Yahoo News posted a timeline of the president and pope’s less-than-friendly relationship. Here are some of the highlights:
Initially, Trump seemed excited about the pontiff, congratulating the Roman Catholic Church on the selection. And by mid-2014, he declared Pope Francis his dream candidate for The Celebrity Apprentice.
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[/lborder]"@mgmacdon: @realDonaldTrump if they had to say yes, who would your first pick to be on the celebrity apprentice?" The Pope!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 6, 2014
Then Trump became a viable presidential candidate, and Francis made a not-too-subtle statement about one of Trump’s central campaign promises: The pontiff said, “A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not Christian.” Not surprisingly, the then-candidate Trump responded harshly.
Then Trump became president, and the Pope sent congratulations and prayers to the new U.S. head-of-state, but it wasn’t long before Pope Francis brought up the wall again.
Now the two are set to meet face-to-face for the first time. We don’t know, of course, which Trump-Pope dynamic we’ll get, but it’s sure to be newsworthy.
