{"id":16124,"date":"2025-04-25T13:23:37","date_gmt":"2025-04-25T13:23:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/used82.com\/?p=16124"},"modified":"2025-04-25T13:23:37","modified_gmt":"2025-04-25T13:23:37","slug":"pope-francis-awkward-meeting-with-melania-trump-revisited","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/used82.com\/?p=16124","title":{"rendered":"Pope Francis\u2019 \u2018awkward\u2019 meeting with Melania Trump revisited"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Melania
Melania Trump (left\/right), Pope Francis (middle). Credit: Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Pope Francis met some of the most significant world leaders during his 12 years in office. Celebrities also passed through his doors and encountered him in meetings worldwide. Two of them, Donald and Melania Trump, have just confirmed they will be at his funeral \u2013 the POTUS and First Lady met Pope Francis in the Vatican during their first term at the White House.<\/strong><\/p>\n

However, their meeting was marred by some confusion. Francis reportedly attempted to speak Italian with\u00a0Melania<\/a>, who claimed she could speak the language. But can she really? One expert now claims she can\u2019t \u2014 and that the meeting with Pope\u00a0Francis<\/a>\u00a0hit a speed-bump as a result.<\/p>\n

Pope Francis, readers will surely be aware, has passed away. The 88-year-old, born in Buenos Aires, made his last public appearance on Easter Sunday at St. Peter\u2019s Square in the Vatican. His death was announced Monday, April 21.<\/p>\n

\u201cDear brothers and sisters, it is with profound sadness I must announce the death of our Holy Father Francis,\u201d Cardinal Kevin Farrell announced on the Vatican\u2019s TV channel. \u201cAt 7:35 this morning, the Bishop of Rome, Francis, returned to the house of the Father.\u201d<\/p>\n

In his final years, Pope Francis suffered from many health issues. He had only one full lung and suffered through two rounds of intestinal surgeries. Just a week ago, he was released from the hospital after spending 38 days there for a life-threatening respiratory condition.<\/p>\n

On Monday night, as per the Holy See Press Office, Dr. Andrea Arcangeli, Director of the Directorate of Health and Hygiene of the Vatican City State, stated that Pope Francis\u2019 cause of death had been identified as a stroke followed by a coma and irreversible cardiocirculatory collapse. His death was confirmed through electrocardiographic thanatography.<\/p>\n

Pope Francis dead at 88<\/h2>\n

\u201cI hereby declare that the causes of death, to the best of my knowledge and judgment, are as stated above,\u201d Dr. Arcangeli said, per\u00a0Vatican News<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Throughout his 12-year papacy, Pope Francis traveled the world. He visited 68 countries and met with many world leaders, including US presidents. His first meeting with a US president was with\u00a0Barack Obama<\/a>\u00a0in 2014.<\/p>\n

Obama was in the midst of his second term as president when he and the pope held a meeting in Rome. Though they had differing views on many issues, their meeting was deemed a success.<\/p>\n

Obama said certain differences didn\u2019t arise during his meeting with Francis. They spoke about human rights and religious freedom, and, as Obama explained: \u201cThe responsibilities that we all share to care for the least of these \u2014the poor, the excluded.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI was extremely moved by his insights about the importance of us all having a moral perspective on world problems and not simply thinking in terms of our own narrow self-interests,\u201d Obama added.<\/p>\n

Obama invited the Pope to visit him at the White House \u2014 and in 2015, he did. During the visit to the US, prior to which the pope had met with Fidel Castro in Cuba, Francis became the first pontiff to ever address a joint session of Congress. At the time, tens of thousands of people had gathered at the Capitol\u2019s West Lawn to watch the speech on screens.<\/p>\n

Pope Francis\u2019 meetings with U.S. presidents<\/h2>\n

\u201cToday I would like not only to address you, but through you the entire people of the United States. Here, together with their representatives, I would like to take this opportunity to dialogue with the many thousands of men and women who strive each day to do an honest day\u2019s work, to bring home their daily bread, to save money and \u2013one step at a time \u2013 to build a better life for their families,\u201d Pope Francis said in his speech to Congress.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are men and women who are not concerned simply with paying their taxes, but in their own quiet way sustain the life of society. They generate solidarity by their actions, and they create organizations which offer a helping hand to those most in need.\u201d<\/p>\n

After his speech, Francis also made a brief appearance on the speaker\u2019s balcony.<\/p>\n

\u201cGood day to all of you.\u00a0I thank you for your welcome and your presence, I thank the most important people here today: the children. I want to ask God to bless them. Lord, Father of us all, bless his people, bless each of them, bless their families, grant them what they need most.\u00a0I ask you to pray for me and, if there are some among you who do not believe or cannot pray, I ask you please to wish me well.\u00a0 Thank you.\u00a0Thank you very much. And God bless America!\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The same day, Pope Francis met with a person who was vice president at the time, but would become President of the United States: prominent Catholic\u00a0Joe Biden<\/a>. Before his death, Francis was to meet one more president \u2013\u00a0Donald Trump<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 and his wife, Melania. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Trump was said to have quite a negative picture of Francis. Just days after the pope was elected in 2013, Trump questioned him and his actions.<\/p>\n

Melania Trump & Pope Francis \u2018awkward\u2019 meeting<\/h2>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t like seeing the Pope standing at the checkout counter (front desk) of a hotel in order to pay his bill,\u201d Trump wrote on X, then Twitter, at the time, per\u00a0CNN<\/a>. \u201cIt\u2019s not Pope-like!\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, in 2015, when Trump became the Republican presidential candidate frontrunner, he said Francis seemed \u201clike a pretty good guy\u201d, though counterweighted that by claiming he was too political.<\/p>\n

Just months later, Trump said that the pope didn\u2019t understand the illegal immigration facing the US, to which Pope Francis responded that Trump wasn\u2019t \u201ca Christian\u201d after he championed deporting immigrants and the building of his infamous wall along the Mexico border.<\/p>\n

\u201cA person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not Christian,\u201d he told journalists. \u201cThis is not the gospel.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s response? Saying Francis\u2019 opinion was \u201cdisgraceful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, despite their differing views on many matters, the president and Pope Francis met in 2017, when Donald and Melania Trump visited the Vatican. However, the meeting began with confusion, involving an awkward moment between the pope and Melania Trump.<\/p>\n

The First Lady is from Slovenia, so it\u2019s no surprise that she can speak the Slovenian language. Melania is also fluent in English, but has previously stated that she is fluent in several further languages. During Donald\u2019s first presidential campaign, Melania explained to MSNBC\u2019s Mika Brzezinski that she spoke English, Italian, French, German, and Slovenian.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe looked at him and said nothing\u201d<\/h2>\n

Interestingly, she\u2019s never been heard speaking Italian, French, or German in public when meeting dignitaries from the respective countries, notwithstanding stock phrases such as \u201cBonjour\u201d or \u201cCiao\u201d. The First Lady always has translators beside her on such occasions \u2013 and it was the same when she met with Pope Francis.<\/p>\n

As stated, the First Lady claimed she is fluent in Italian, though a translator was on hand when she met Pope Francis in 2017. The pope asked Melania if she fed her husband a special Slovenian cake called potica.<\/p>\n

It quickly became apparent that Melania immediately didn\u2019t understand. She then turned to the interpreter, who explained his question. Melania then answered: \u201cPotica, yes.\u201d<\/p>\n

All told, the meeting went well\u2026 or did it?<\/p>\n

In 2020, author and Washington Post reporter Mary Jordan revealed new details about the meeting in an unauthorized 2020 biography about Melania,\u00a0The Art of Her Deal<\/em>. Jordan claimed that the pope had received information that Melania spoke Italian\u00a0<\/em>before their encounter.<\/p>\n

When Pope Francis extended his hand to Melania, she said, \u201cThank you. Nice to meet you,\u201d in English, according to Jordan. However, the pope answered in Italian.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe looked at him and said nothing,\u201d Jordan wrote in\u00a0The Art of Her Deal.<\/em><\/p>\n

When a Vatican aide handed Melania Trump a rosary for the pope to bless, she again answered in English, \u201cOh, I would love it. Thank you. Grazie,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Did Melania Trump lie about her Italian language skills?<\/h2>\n

Although Melania answered in English, she was familiar with at least some Italian words. When the pope asked where they were off to next, the First Lady replied, \u201cI\u2019m going to visit a hospital, for bambinos. Thank you so much.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mary Jordan speculated in her book that it could simply have been that Melania was too starstruck by the pope to try her Italian, or rather that she didn\u2019t want to be rude in excluding her stepdaughter Ivanka Trump (out present), who doesn\u2019t speak Italian. Still, the author suggests that \u201cexaggerating if it builds the brand and polishes the image\u201d could have been a compelling narrative for Melania.<\/p>\n

To say she can speak five languages would make her comparable to Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, the wife of President\u00a0John F. Kennedy<\/a>. She was highly skilled in several languages and held a conversation in French with Pope John XXIII for more than 30 minutes when they visited the Vatican in 1962<\/p>\n

Melania Trump has only been heard saying \u201cbonjour\u201d and \u201cciao\u201d in videos when she has met European leaders or children in Europe. So is it really true that Melania can speak all the languages she claims to?<\/p>\n

\u201cI couldn\u2019t find any videos showing her fluency in anything other than Slovenian and English,\u201d Mary Jordan wrote\u00a0The Art of Her Deal<\/em>. \u201cI asked the White House if they could point to any evidence, and they did not respond.\u201d<\/p>\n

Do you think Melania Trump is fluent in five languages or not? Regardless, we are envious of her opportunity to meet Pope Francis. Please share this article on Facebook with friends and family to honor the late Pope<\/strong>\u00a0Francis.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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