How the primary American pope will work together with the president of his homeland stays to be seen, however just a few posts on social media may present a clue.
Cardinal Robert Prevost, now Pope Leo XIV, can also be identified on the social media website X as @drprevost, the place he has often weighed in with reposts on points of religion and politics — together with Trump administration feedback or actions.
In February he shared articles that took situation with a remark by Vice President JD Vance, who transformed to Catholicism as an grownup and met on Easter Sunday with Pope Francis, who died the following day.
Vance’s go to got here after the pope had written a letter to U.S. bishops in February, detailing his considerations over the Trump administration’s plans for mass deportations.
The pope underscored his help for “migrant and refugee brothers and sisters” within the letter: “Christians know very nicely that it’s only by affirming the infinite dignity of all that our personal id as individuals and as communities reaches its maturity. Christian love shouldn’t be a concentric growth of pursuits that little by little lengthen to different individuals and teams.”
On Feb. 12, Prevost reposted an article from the Catholic publication America journal saying the pope’s letter served as a rebuke of Vance’s feedback in a Jan. 29 Fox Information interview “that you simply love your loved ones and you then love your neighbor, and you then love your group, and you then love your fellow residents, after which after that, prioritize the remainder of the world.”
Prevost reposted an article in an analogous vein on Feb. 3 from the Nationwide Catholic Reporter headlined “JD Vance is improper: Jesus doesn’t ask us to rank our love for others.”
Reposts on social media don’t essentially sign an endorsement of their viewpoints.
In April, the brand new pope reposted of a remark from author Rocco Palmo, who questioned Trump and El Salvador President Nayib Bukele’s assembly within the Oval Workplace. The presidents met days after the U.S. wrongly deported a Salvadoran man residing in Maryland, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, and declined to deliver him again, regardless of an order from the Supreme Courtroom that the U.S. facilitate his return.
Palmo’s submit quoted an article written by Washington, D.C., Auxiliary Bishop Evelio Menjivar: “Do you not see the struggling? Is your conscience not disturbed? How are you going to keep quiet?”
In 2018, when information of immigrant kids being separated from their mother and father on the border reached a fever pitch throughout Trump’s first time period, Prevost retweeted a submit from the archbishop of Chicago that stated: “There may be nothing remotely Christian, American, or morally defensible a few coverage that takes kids away from their mother and father and warehouses them in cages. That is being carried out in our identify and the disgrace is on us all.”
Trump on Thursday praised the information about Prevost. “Congratulations to Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, who was simply named Pope. It’s such an honor to comprehend that he’s the primary American Pope,” the president wrote on X. “What pleasure, and what a Nice Honor for our Nation. I look ahead to assembly Pope Leo XIV. It is going to be a really significant second!”
The liberal advocacy group Occupy Democrats, in a press release on X, advised Trump’s reward can be fleeting: “As soon as [President] Trump will get a greater sense of Pope Leo XIV’s beliefs — particularly that Christians are referred to as to like and look after all the individuals of the world, not simply white conservatives — the president will doubtless be singing a really totally different tune. If and when that assault comes, we are going to proudly stand with Pope Leo’s love and kindness in opposition to Trump’s hatred and cruelty.”
The announcement of Prevost as the primary American to be named pope comes at a tense time for European-American relations, because the Trump administration is transferring to isolate the USA and, in some circumstances, antagonize its conventional allies.
European nations are nonetheless navigating uneven financial waters after Trump issued sweeping tariffs final month in opposition to all nations. The papal resolution Thursday coincided with the White Home’s announcement of its first commerce settlement struck with a European nation, the UK. A number of different European nations are nonetheless ready their flip to barter with Trump over reducing the tariffs.
Whereas adjusting to speedy financial adjustments, European leaders are additionally nonetheless reeling from when Vance gave them a stern rebuke on the Munich safety convention in February, when he warned in opposition to overregulation and advocated listening to all corners of the political spectrum — together with Germany’s far-right celebration.
The papal announcement got here days after the White Home posted on its social media an AI-generated picture of Trump as pope.
