US President Donald Trump to pay tribute to Pope Francis’s funeral despite ideological differences

US President Donald Trump, who has differences with Pope Francis over ideologies, will attend his funeral on Saturday. Pope Francis breathed his last on Easter on Monday.
There is a difference on the ideology of Pope Francis and Trump. For example, exactly a day before dying, in its final public address, on the occasion of Easter Sunday, Pope Francis expressed a message of unity and marginalization and an appeal to migrants.
He announced, “We are all children of God!” Conversely, President Donald Trump released an abusive position, wished for a happy Easter to his opponents, which “radical left lunetics,” “weak and ineffective judges and law enforcement officers,”, and former President Joe Biden, “our worst and most inefficient presidents.”
Some fundamental differences between the US President and the heavenly Pope will come in a sharp focus as Trump travels to Rome on Friday for the funeral of Francis, who are scheduled to be held at St. Peter Square on Saturday morning.
David Gibson, Director of Center on Religion and Culture at Fordham University in New York called Trump and Francis’s relationship as ‘terrible relationship’.
Relationship is erased:
Things between Trump and the Pope were not great during Trump’s first term from 2017 to 2021. However, Gibson said, “Trump 2.0 was worse with the Vatican as it was more aggressive at every level, against migrants, against international assistance.”
Argentina Pontif and the US President denied views on the immigration issue. In 2016, Francis, indirectly referring to the Republican candidate Trump, said, who builds a wall to keep the migrants out, “not Christian.” Trump called the comment “derogatory”.
Despite the emphasis on the humility of Pope Francis, inclusion and progressive stance on issues such as immigration and climate change – Trump has succeeded in gaining increasing support among American Catholics. This support is especially strong among conservative Catholics.
Trump recognizes himself as a “non-communist Christian”, meaning that he does not align with installed church institutions and emphasizes a direct relationship with God. Their policies on abortion – including the appointment of three of the five Justices of the US Supreme Court, contributed to eliminating the rights of national abortion – have deepened their support among Christians, especially conservative Catholics.
The Republican President honestly requested Catholics to vote last year. In October, when he addressed the Al Smith Charity Dinner in New York, who collects millions of dollars for Catholic charity, Trump appealed: “You go out and vote. And Catholic, you vote for me.”
According to AP Votekast, in 2024 elections, Trump won the Catholic vote, which surveyed over 120,000 voters. In 2020, the Catholic vote which was equally divided between Biden, but in 2024, 54 percent of Catholic voters supported Trump and 44 percent supported Kamla Harris.
Despite Catholic support, Trump Pope failed to approve of Francis:
Trump may have obtained a Catholic vote; However, he failed to win over Pope Francis. Vice President JD Vance, a Catholic, met Francis, a day before he died, dismissed Pontif’s disagreement with the administration, this week told reporters that Pope was “a very wide person” compared to American politics – a man – a man who led a church with 1.4 billion members worldwide.
He said, “I know that he had some disagreement with some policies of our administration.”
“He had a lot of compromises with some policies of our administration. I am not going to give mud to man’s legacy by talking about politics.”
Although Trump and Pope Francis held a cordial meeting in the Vatican in 2017, they still remained disagreeing. In February 2025, Francis sent a letter to the American bishops, expressing his disagreement with the recent public exile by the Trump administration. He said that in the Bible, the infant Jesus and his families themselves were refugees in Egypt, hazarding their lives.
Some major bishops appreciated some new initiatives of the Trump administration on the “school choice” and defines the gender -determined policies at birth. Francis, while maintaining the teachings of the church on sexuality, took a more tolerant attitude towards the LGBTQ+ people.
Other prominent bishops appointed by Francis are more sympathetic with his priorities. They include Washington, Cardinal’s new archbishop Robert McCallroy,
Although he has a difference, Trump still chose to pay his tribute to Pope Francis in Rome.
Unlike Pope Francis’s progressive agenda, Trump’s policies resonate with conservative Catholics:
John Fiah, a professor of history at the Messiah University in Pennsylvania, said that despite honoring many conservative Catholic, Pontiffs, “did not like his progressive views” on immigrants “and his authorized blessings for equal-ling couples.
“Many conservative American Catholic Line-ups with Trump’s brand of popular: Strong Borders, Pro-Life on Abortion, anxiety of important race theory in schools, etc., etc.,” Fia, “Fia,” Fia, “Faith:” Faith: “Faith: The Evengelical Road to Donald Trump”.
In addition to the migration, Pope and Trump opposed views on environmental issues. While the Pope advocated immediate action on climate change, Trump was eager to revive the fossil fuel industry. Francis also opposed the death sentence, a policy trump supported.
Steven millisThe director of the Berndine Center at the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago said that Trump and Francis shared some policy goals on issues such as abortion and religious freedom. “But alignment was at diplomatic level compared to individual or political levels, of course,” he said.
“They were deeply different people – one that was formed by Jesuit spirituality and won his life in deep faith that he shared with the world, the other one who manages holy scripture quotations, sells bibels for personal gain, and uses Christianity like a brand identity in a market competition.”