President Trump by The White House / Flickr (Left), Pope Leo XIV by Catholic Church England and Wales / Flickr (Right)
CV NEWS FEED // President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance took to social media May 8 to congratulate Pope Leo XIV, the newly elected pontiff and first North American pope. Formerly Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, the Chicago native now assumes the role of spiritual leader for more than a billion Catholics worldwide.
“Congratulations to Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, who was just named Pope,” Trump posted on social media. “It is such an honor to realize that he is the first American Pope. What excitement, and what a Great Honor for our Country. I look forward to meeting Pope Leo XIV. It will be a very meaningful moment!”
Vance, a Catholic convert, congratulated Pope Leo on X, writing, “I’m sure millions of American Catholics and other Christians will pray for his successful work leading the Church. May God bless him!”
As CatholicVote previously reported, the College of Cardinals elected Pope Leo XIV as the 267th pope May 8. The two-day conclave followed the April 21 death of Pope Francis.
>>The first North American pontiff: Who is Pope Leo XIV?<<
According to the Washington Post, Trump spoke to reporters outside the White House following the announcement of the papal election results, stating that he was “a little bit surprised” at the choice “but very happy.”
Trump’s reaction to Pope Leo’s election comes after several comments in the past few weeks on the conclave, including one in which he joked “I’d like to be pope,” according to People Magazine. He also appeared to back Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the Archbishop of New York, although he added that he really had “no preference.”
Trump also entangled himself with the conclave when White House social media accounts reposted a viral AI-generated image of himself as pope. CatholicVote reported that when asked by reporters about putting the image on the official White House accounts, Trump dismissed it as a joke, saying “Have to have a little fun, don’t you?” He also denied having anything to do with the creation or distribution of the image, claiming that he had “no idea where it came from.”
