President Donald Trump congratulated León XIV, the first pope from the United States, in a message on his Truth Social network on Thursday. “Congratulations to Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, who has just been named pope. It is a great honor to know he is the first American pope. How exciting, and what a great honor for our country,” he said.
“I’m looking forward to meeting Pope León XIV. It will be a great moment!” he added. Later, Trump briefly spoke with reporters outside the West Wing about the new pope, who is originally from Chicago but also holds Peruvian nationality. “What greater honor could there be? We’re a little surprised but very happy,” he commented.
When a journalist asked if he regretted posting an AI-generated image of himself dressed as pope less than a week after attending Pope Francis’s funeral in Rome, Trump ignored the question. Last week, he joked that he would like to succeed Pope Francis: “I’d like to be pope, that would be my number one choice,” he said.
Regarding the conclave, the Republican denied having any preferences but noted that there was a cardinal in New York who was “very good,” apparently referring to Timothy Dolan. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a conservative Catholic, also reacted to the election of the new head of the Catholic Church.
“The United States looks forward to deepening its longstanding relationship with the Holy See under the first American pontiff,” he said in a statement. President Trump had a complicated relationship with the previous pope. Francis, who received Trump at the Vatican during his first term in 2017 for a half-hour meeting, had criticized him for his anti-immigrant positions.
After the Republican’s return to power on January 20, the Jesuit pope — a strong advocate for the marginalized — continued his criticism. The expulsion of “people who, in many cases, have left their countries due to extreme poverty, insecurity, exploitation, persecution, or severe environmental degradation, undermines the dignity of many men and women,” he lamented in an unusual letter addressed to U.S. bishops and published by the Vatican.
In his letter, Francis also called for “a fraternity open to all, without exception,” setting aside “personal, community, or national identity.” Many commentators have interpreted this as a theological rebuke of U.S. Vice President JD Vance, who invokes a Catholic doctrine known as ordo amoris — “order of love” — to justify anti-immigration policy, claiming that Christian charity should first benefit those closest to oneself, rather than foreigners.
