Donald Trump's Trip to Pope Francis' Funeral Puts a Sharper Focus on Their Clashes Over the Years

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

55% : " Trump, too, met once with Francis, in a largely cordial meeting at the Vatican in 2017.
55% : Francis also staunchly opposed the death penalty, something Trump supports.
51% : John Fea, a professor of history at Messiah University in Pennsylvania, said many conservative Catholics, even if they respect the office of the pope, "don't like his progressive views" on immigrants and his authorizing of blessings for same-sex couples.
49% : In October, when he addressed the Al Smith charity dinner in New York, which raises millions of dollars for Catholic charities, Trump said: "You gotta get out and vote.
47% : In the 2024 election, Trump won the Catholic vote, according to AP VoteCast, a survey of more than 120,000 voters.
46% : Trump, who has identified himself as a "non-denominational Christian," has long counted Christians, especially evangelical Christians, among his key blocs of support.
42% : " Some of the fundamental differences between the U.S. president and the late pope -- not only their divergent styles but their positions on migration, the environment and poverty -- will come into sharper focus as Trump travels to Rome on Friday for Francis' funeral, to be held Saturday morning in St. Peter's Square.
40% : " The relationship eroded Things weren't great between Trump and the pope during Trump's first term, from 2017 to 2021.
40% : Trump and Francis did share some policy goals on issues such as abortion and religious freedom, and U.S.-Vatican relations involve more than two people, said Steven Millies, director of the Bernadin Center at the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago.
38% : "The views of many conservative American Catholics line-up with Trump's brand of populism: strong borders, pro-life on abortion, concern about critical race theory in schools, etc.," Fea, author of "Believe Me: The Evangelical Road to Donald Trump," said via email.
33% : In 2020, the Catholic vote was evenly split between Joe Biden, but in 2024, 54% of Catholic voters supported Trump and 44% supported Kamala Harris.
29% : In addition to migration, Francis also differed with Trump on the environment, writing an encyclical calling for climate action, in contrast to the president's push to bring back fossil fuels.
27% : For Trump, Catholics' support didn't earn Francis' But while Trump may have won the Catholic vote, he never won over Francis.
27% : In contrast, he speculated that many progressive Catholics who do share Pope Francis' social justice concerns probably did not vote for Trump.
15% : Trump called the comment "disgraceful.

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