Trump Held Court at Pope’s Funeral as Politics, Ritual Collided

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Dozens of leaders from around the world gathered for the occasion, to pay their last respects to a pope who in his lifetime was divisive — beloved by progressives but disapproved of by many social conservatives. 

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But all eyes were on Trump to see who he would greet and who he might snub.

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Former US President Joe Biden, a devout Catholic, was seated with wife Jill Biden four or five rows back. He and Trump didn’t appear to speak. 

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Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni, who recently visited Trump at the White House, didn’t appear to be much in the mix, but her low profile might have been a personal choice given her personal connection to the pope, who she invited to her Group of Seven summit last year. 

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She also has a bit of a history of getting irritated with Macron for hogging the limelight. His office had made a point of saying the French president wouldn’t be conducting diplomatic meetings at the funeral — but in practice, that’s exactly what he did.

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Instead, Meloni opted for lunch after the Mass with a like-minded leader, Javier Milei, who once called the pope a “filthy leftist” but was since forgiven by his fellow Argentine. Francis never returned to his native country after he was elected pope in the 2013 conclave.

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It’s rare for this many leaders to find themselves under the same roof — or in this case, dome. Given Trump’s disdain for multilateralism, and with his own presence at the next meeting G-7 in Canada far from certain, it was a chance for access which would yield its share of unscripted moments.

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On a warm morning, with attendees sitting in direct sunlight, Finnish President Alexander Stubb at one point appeared to offer Trump his bottle of water. Trump — a known germaphobe — declined. 

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Trump himself acknowledged the challenges of conducting business at a funeral. “It’s a little disrespectful to have meetings when you’re at the funeral of a pope, they say,” Trump told reporters Friday on his flight to Rome. “But I’ll be talking to people, I’ll be seeing a lot of people.”

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With the European Union caught up in the trade war and getting hammered by tariffs, it was a good time for European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to try and get some face time with the president — and she did. The two hadn’t yet met since Trump returned to power. Camera footage showed them engaged in polite small talk. It was a brief encounter but for VDL — as she’s known — it was a start.

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Trump’s window was narrow, and it quickly closed. No time for a second meeting with Zelenskiy. The schedules were too tight, explained a spokesman for the Ukrainian president. 

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The presidential motorcade zipped back the airport shortly after the event, and Trump was wheels up by lunch time. 

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—With assistance from Sonia Sirletti.

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