In the course of their meeting Pope Francis gave President Trump a signed copy of his 2017 peace message entitled “Nonviolence — A Style of Politics for Peace,” and a copy of his 2015 encyclical letter on the need to protect the environment from the effects of climate change.
“Well, I’ll be reading them,” Trump said.
“Donald Trump, master of the mixed message, has experienced confused feelings of admiration, disapproval, and, even, an intimate sense of identification, towards Pope Francis, 226th sovereign of Vatican City.,’ says Isobel Thompson.
She suggested that perhaps the most nervous person present was the translator, charged with mediating between the pair for precisely 29 minutes.
“‘It is my desire that you become an olive tree to construct peace,’ the pope apparently said, via the interpreter, gifting the president as small sculpted version of said tree. Trump responded: ‘We can use peace.'”
Speaking on the papal plane after a recent trip to Portugal, Francis said that when he spoke to Trump, “Things will come out, I will say what I think, he will say what he thinks, but I never, ever, wanted to make a judgement without hearing the person.”
Isobel Thompson is assistant editor, digital, previously editorial assistant at Vanity Fair
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