After meeting Donald Trump, the Pope apparently found it too difficult to hide his true feeling about the outspoken and controversial American President.
Pope Francis after meeting Trump: pic.twitter.com/a4Wvmq1ZMY
— Mike T (@majtague) May 24, 2017
In a photo taken today, standing alongside Trump, the Pope looks like he is attending a funeral. Perhaps he’s mourning the death of American leadership in the realm of human rights protections. Or the impending demise of our planet at the hands of a man who thinks climate change is a Chinese hoax. Or, perhaps, the Pope experienced firsthand the extent of Donald Trump’s vocabulary.
The contrast in the Pope’s reaction to meeting former President Barack Obama, though, is telling.
Pope Francis has been a vocal champion for healthcare, education and assistance to immigrants since ascending to the papacy. While he and Obama found common ground on all of these issues – and worked tirelessly to promote assistance or solutions for them – the Trump administration has, for its part, launched a shameless assault on the full range of this spectrum.
Per the Religion News Service, the Pope gave Trump a copy of his text on the dangers of climate change. He also gave him “a small sculptured olive tree and told him through the interpreter that it symbolized peace.”
Trump responded to this gift, “We can use peace.”
Trump himself has been criticized for promoting disorder. He is currently being sued for inciting violence at once of his rallies. In another instance, following a Trump rally, David Gergen, White House adviser to four presidents, called his speech “the most divisive speech I’ve ever hard from a sitting American president.”
.@David_Gergen: "This was the most divisive speech I've ever heard from an American president" https://t.co/0yZZlMX2f1
— CNN Newsroom (@CNNnewsroom) April 30, 2017
His meeting with the Pope, of course, is not Trump’s only glaring error from his first trip overseas. Aside from being publicly denied – twice – by his wife, Melania, Trump also infamously claimed that he had “just gotten back from the Middle East” upon arriving in Israel. In his defense, geography can be hard.
WATCH: Pres. Trump to the President of Israel (while in Israel): "We just got back from the Middle East." (Watch the guy on the right) pic.twitter.com/q6nVq31WGu
— The Reagan Battalion (@ReaganBattalion) May 22, 2017
Pope Francis has captured the hearts and minds of Christians and non-Christians the world over, bringing a new sense of both logic and compassion to the papacy. It should come as no surprise, then, that his reaction would be so morbid upon meeting a man so vile, so soulless, so uncompassionate as Donald Trump.
What do you think?
