Pope Leo overcame damning Donald Trump remark to become first American pontiff

Donald Trump sparked outrage last week when he jokingly said he wanted to be the next Pope, before the White House shared an AI-generated image of him dressed as the pontiff

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Pope Leo XIV overcame Donald Trump's damning comment about the Papacy and "anti-Americanism" in the Vatican though his diligent skill behind the scenes, an expert has told the Mirror.

Pope Leo made history yesterday when he was named the first American-born pontiff in the history of the Catholic Church. But his pathway to the papacy had not been guaranteed with the position seemingly appearing closed off to him following remarks made by US President Trump following the death of Pope Francis. The Republican firebrand stunned reporters at the White House last week when he joked that he would like to be the next Pope. Catholics also shared their outrage when the White House later shared an AI-generated image of Mr Trump dressed as Pope.

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"When Donald Trump made his remarks last week, it really seemed to sink the idea of an American Pope, because you couldn't imaging the Cardinals wanting to give Trump what he wanted," Dr Miles Pattenden, programme director at the Europeaum network of leading universities faculty of history told The Mirror. But despite the controversial US leader's comments, Robert Prevost prevailed to be named the first American Pope.

Pope Leo's moderate stance and administrative capabilities behind the scenes made him an attractive pick to unite the Catholic Church's conservative and liberal wings. He also overcame an anti-American stance within the Vatican, concerned at handing the world's only superpower more global influence.

His work among the poor in Peru also appear to have lent Cardinal Prevost an upper hand with his counterparts viewing him as an appealing figure in the global south.

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His election as Pope can also be viewed as a reset among more concerned cardinals who believed former Pope Francis had taken a more confrontational tone with certain world leaders.

"There was momentum behind him," said Dr Pattenden. "The only thing that was against him was that he is American. Otherwise he ticks all the boxes. I think a lot of us couldn't quite believe that they would pick an American.

"But they picked an American who also has a Peruvian passport and I suspect he identifies as much as a Peruvian as an American, and that I think made it possible in a way that wouldn't have been for the Archbishop of New York [Cardinal Timothy Dolan].

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"There's long been a reflective anti Americanism in the hierarchy of the Catholic Church as they view America as having enough global power without having the papacy as well, that's what we thought."

It is unclear how much Cardinals had been aware of the new Pope's views on the Trump administration. Then Cardinal Prevost shared numerous articles on his social media that hit out at JD Vance while also expressing sympathy for immigrants and Black Lives Matter icon George Floyd.

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MAGA supporters quickly took to social media to voice their outrage that Cardinal Prevost had been named Pope. But cardinals will hope the Chicago-born Pope will avoid any larger conflicts with the Trump administration.

"I think they would have had a general sense that he was not aligned with the Trump administration," Dr Pattenden told The Mirror.

"We just have to see how he acts. In the last months of Francis (papacy), there was an unease in the Vatican as well as elsewhere about the extent to which Francis was coming into conflict with the Trump regime which the Vatican had been keen to avoid. In the end you can cross a line where you end up making Catholics choose between their politics and their faith and it's not clear exactly where that line is."

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