The President and First Lady departed aboard Air Force One from Joint Base Andrews mid-morning. Just before boarding Marine One, which took the Trumps to Joint Base Andrews, the president spoke with reporters about the trip, noting he would meet with many world leaders there.
“We’re going to Rome to pay our respects, and we’ll be leaving that same day,” Trump said. “We’ll be coming back home tomorrow night, and I’ll see some of you over there. Otherwise, I’ll see you on television.”
He stated a moment earlier that he would meet with many world leaders in Italy.
“We’re going to meet with a lot of the foreign leaders. They want to meet,” Trump said. “Trade deals are going very well. I think Russia and Ukraine, I think they’re coming along, we hope, very fragile. And Iran, I think, is going very well. We’ll see what happens.”
During an Oval Office press conference alongside Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre on Thursday, a reporter asked Trump if he planned to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Trump said he was unsure if Zelensky would be attending the funeral.
file/U.S. President Donald Trump and his wife Melania met with Pope Francis during a private audience at the Vatican on May 24, 2017. (MAURIX/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)
“I don’t know that he’s going to the funeral or not, but I just hope he gets this thing solved,” he said.
The New York Times reported Monday that Zelesnky will be in attendance.
Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff notably met with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday as the Trump administration looks to bring an end to the war.
Other current and former world leaders set to attend the pontiff’s funeral include former President Joe Biden and former First Lady Jill Biden, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, British Prime Minister Kier Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron, and Argentinian President Javier Milei, per the Times.
When a reporter asked on the South Lawn how he would remember the late pontiff, Trump said, “Very well.”
“He loved the world, actually, and he was just a good man. I met him twice. I thought he was a fantastic kind of a guy,” he added.
Breitbart News
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