Trump's migration stance overshadowed ties with Pope Francis

By Steve Holland

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Shortly after Pope Francis' death was announced on Monday, President Donald Trump ordered American flags dropped to half-staff, offering nothing but praise for the world's Roman Catholic leader.

The compliments stood in sharp contrast to some of the criticism exchanged between the two leaders over a decade-long bickering mostly related to the pope's plea for compassion for migrants, a group Trump has repeatedly sought to deport.

The U.S. president on Friday will fly to Rome to attend Francis' funeral. Accompanied by first lady Melania Trump and a U.S. delegation, it will be Trump's first foreign trip of his second term.

Trump this week has avoided talking about any friction with the 88-year-old pontiff.

"He was a good man, worked hard, he loved the world," Trump said with his wife standing by his side at the annual White House Easter Egg Roll event.

When a reporter noted to Trump that the pope preached tolerance for migrants, the president replied: "Yes, he did." The reporter asked Trump if he agreed, and he replied, "Yeah, I do."

Trump has tested the bounds of U.S. law to increase arrests and deportations as part of a sweeping immigration crackdown since taking office in January. On Thursday, he celebrated his border crackdown with an all-caps social media post.

"THE SOUTHERN BORDER IS NOW THE STRONGEST AND SAFEST IN USA HISTORY. IT WILL REMAIN SO," he said.

The pope first expressed his displeasure with Trump's approach in 2016 after Trump, running for president for the first time, announced plans to build a wall along the U.S. southern border with Mexico to keep migrants out.

"A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not Christian," Francis said at the time.

Trump fired back in a campaign statement.

"For a religious leader to question a person's faith is disgraceful," Trump said. "If and when the Vatican is attacked by ISIS, which as everyone knows is ISIS's ultimate trophy, I can promise you that the pope would have only wished and prayed that Donald Trump would have been president because this would not have happened."

PRESIDENT AND POPE MEET

Once Trump became president in 2017, his first foreign trip included a stop at the Vatican. A photo of the meeting showed the president and members of his family standing next to an unsmiling pope.

In November, Trump won the Catholic vote 63% to 35%, increasing his share by seven percentage points compared to his performance in 2020, according to an exit poll conducted by Edison Research.

"They were with me during the election as you know very strongly, and it's just an honor to have the support of the Catholics and I feel very badly for them because they love the pope," Trump told the Eternal World Television Network on Monday.

After Trump entered office a second time and made migrant deportations a top priority, Francis returned to the subject of migration in a February 10 letter to American bishops.

"I have followed closely the major crisis that is taking place in the United States with the initiation of a program of mass deportations," he said. "The rightly formed conscience cannot fail to make a critical judgment and express its disagreement with any measure that tacitly or explicitly identifies the illegal status of some migrants with criminality."

The two men also clashed in style. Francis preferred a simple lifestyle in a Vatican City guesthouse, while Trump, America's wealthiest president, has added ornate gold decorations to the Oval Office.

Piotr Kosicki, a history professor at the University of Maryland who has written widely about the Catholic Church, said that while the Trump-Francis relationship was antagonistic, Trump's attendance at the funeral is "definitely a show of respect."

"It's clearly a historic moment to be able to participate in that," he said.

A historic footnote will be that Trump's vice president, JD Vance, was among the last foreign leaders to see the pope before his death. They met briefly on Easter Sunday.

Speaking later about the visit, Vance played down political differences between the Trump administration and Francis, and said he felt lucky to have met him.

"It was a great blessing," Vance said.

(Reporting By Steve Holland; additional reporting by Jason Lange; Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Diane Craft)