Donald Trump. (Photo: Spencer Platt for Getty Images)
What do Jeb Bush, Ted Cruz and the Pope have in common?
Donald Trump has hated on all of them.
After Pope Francis questioned Mr. Trump’s commitment to Christianity today, Mr. Trump fired back in a three paragraph missive, claiming the Holy Father will wish the Republican front-runner is president when the Islamic State attacks the Vatican, their “ultimate trophy.” Mr. Trump, a billionaire real estate developer, went on to say that it was “disgraceful” the Pope was calling into question his faith.
“For a religious leader to question a person’s faith is disgraceful. I am proud to be a Christian and as President I will not allow Christianity to be consistently attacked and weakened, unlike what is happening now, with our current President,” Mr. Trump said. “No leader, especially a religious leader, should have the right to question another man’s religion or faith.”
Francis, speaking with reporters aboard a papal airliner, said Mr. Trump is “not a Christian” because of the harshness of his pledges to deport more immigrants and force Mexico to pay for a wall along the border.
“A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not Christian,” Francis said.
Mr. Trump, a Presbyterian who is courting evangelical voters, is one of the less religious Republican candidates. As something of a liberal icon, Francis, seen as a reformer of the Catholic Church, is an apt punching bag for Mr. Trump. The billionaire recently knocked the Pope for visiting the Mexican border, calling him a “political person” acting at the behest of the Mexican government.
In his hyperbolic statement, Mr. Trump said Francis would have “only wished and prayed” he was president during a hypothetical ISIS attack.
“If and when the Vatican is attacked by ISIS, which as everyone knows is ISIS’s ultimate trophy, I can promise you that the Pope would have only wished and prayed that Donald Trump would have been President because this would not have happened. ISIS would have been eradicated unlike what is happening now with our all talk, no action politicians,” he said.
View the full statement below:
If and when the Vatican is attacked by ISIS, which as everyone knows is ISIS’s ultimate trophy, I can promise you that the Pope would have only wished and prayed that Donald Trump would have been President because this would not have happened. ISIS would have been eradicated unlike what is happening now with our all talk, no action politicians.
The Mexican government and its leadership has made many disparaging remarks about me to the Pope, because they want to continue to rip off the United States, both on trade and at the border, and they understand I am totally wise to them. The Pope only heard one side of the story – he didn’t see the crime, the drug trafficking and the negative economic impact the current policies have on the United States. He doesn’t see how Mexican leadership is outsmarting President Obama and our leadership in every aspect of negotiation.
For a religious leader to question a person’s faith is disgraceful. I am proud to be a Christian and as President I will not allow Christianity to be consistently attacked and weakened, unlike what is happening now, with our current President. No leader, especially a religious leader, should have the right to question another man’s religion or faith. They are using the Pope as a pawn and they should be ashamed of themselves for doing so, especially when so many lives are involved and when illegal immigration is so rampant.
Disclosure: Donald Trump is the father-in-law of Jared Kushner, the publisher of Observer Media.
