Pope Leo XIV has not shied away from criticizing President Donald Trump. Trump has now said he is willing to have an audience with the first American pontiff.
Pope Leo, a native of Chicago, has spoken against Trump’s aggressive migration policies, calling the administration’s treatment of migrants “inhuman” and not “pro-life,” per Politico.
Trump told Politico that he had not heard the Pope’s criticisms.
“I haven’t seen that. I mean … I mean, he … maybe he has. I mean, he also didn’t like the wall. You know, they didn’t like the wall,” Trump said in an episode of “The Conversation,” which aired Tuesday. “The wall turned out to be great.”
Trump was referring to Pope Francis, who called Trump’s U.S.-Mexico border wall “not Christian.” He also called Trump’s mass deportation plans a “disgrace.”
When asked if he was willing to meet with the Pope, Trump answered, “Why not?”
“Sure, I will. Why not?” he said.
Pope Leo recently urged Trump not to launch a military invasion of Venezuela, saying there could be “another way to bring about change, if that is what the United States decides to do.”
“But I haven’t heard any statements from the Pope [Leo],” Trump said. “I’m sure he’s a lovely man. His brother’s a lovely man … Do you know his brother is serious MAGA?”
Louis Prevost, Pope Leo’s older brother, has supported Trump and met with the him at the White House in May.
When the Pope was a Cardinal he reposted on social media an op-ed that criticized Vice President JD Vance, a Catholic convert, for his interpretation of the faith and Washington’s immigration program.
“Do you not see the suffering? Is your conscience not disturbed?” the op-ed reposted by Prevost read.
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