President Donald Trump announced he and first lady Melania Trump will travel to Rome for Pope Francis‘ funeral.
‘Melania and I will be going to the funeral of Pope Francis, in Rome. We look forward to being there!,’ he wrote on social media.
The Vatican said Francis, the first pope from Latin America, died after a stroke and requested a simple tomb in Rome.
His tomb may be simple but his funeral will be a state occasion with multiple world leaders likely to attend.
The Vatican has not announced a funeral date or formal plans but a pontiff’s funeral and interment must take place four to six days after his death. The service traditionally takes place in St. Peter’s Square.
That likely puts the funeral at the weekend, which could run into Melania’s 55th birthday on Saturday, April 26.
The funeral would be Trump’s first international trip of his second term.
He paid tribute to Pope Francis at the White House Easter Egg Roll on Monday, saying he was putting the flags at half-staff to honor the pontiff.
President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump met with Pope Francis at the Vatican in May 2017
‘He was a good man, he worked hard and loved the world,’ Trump said.
Trump met the Pope at the Vatican in his first term in May 2017.
Pope Francis died a day after he appeared in his wheelchair on the balcony in St. Peter’s Square on Easter Sunday to bless the faithful below.
Trump’s Vice President J.D. Vance was one of the last people to have an official meeting with Francis.
Vance is a Catholic convert who was received into the church in 2019.
‘The meeting, which lasted a few minutes, gave the opportunity to exchange greetings on Easter Sunday’, the Vatican said.
The two men met Easter Sunday, one of the pope’s final engagements before his death.
The Pope offered the Vice President three large chocolate Easter eggs for his three young children, who did not attend.
President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump at Monday’s White House Easter Egg Roll
The Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore (St Mary Major) in Rome, Italy on February 2025 where Pope Francis wants to be buried
Francis asked to be buried in a ‘niche of the side nave between the Cappella Paolina (Chapel of the Salus Populi Romani) and the Cappella Sforza of the aforementioned Papal Basilica.’
‘The tomb must be in the earth; simple, without particular decoration and with the only inscription: Franciscus,’ his request read.
The pope’s body will be placed in three caskets: one made from cypress, the second from metal and the third from elm or oak.
Traditionally, popes are buried holding a rosary, a death certificate and the broken fisherman’s ring.
Francis was pontiff during Barack Obama’s, Joe Biden’s and Trump’s presidencies.
During Obama’s presidency, Francis made a major visit to Washington D.C. He visited the White House and addressed a joint session of Congress in September 2015.
It’s unclear if the two former presidents will attend.
When then-President George W. Bush attended Pope John Paul II’s funeral in April 2005 he brought his father, George H.W. Bush, and Bill Clinton on Air Force One with him.
