U.S. President Donald Trump jokingly said on Tuesday that he would like to be the next pope.
When asked whom he would like to see become the next Catholic pontiff, Trump told reporters, “I’d like to be pope. That would be my No. 1 choice.”;
The U.S. president said he actually had no preference, adding, “I must say, we have a cardinal that happens to be out of a place called New York who’s very good, so we’ll see what happens.”;
DAILY POST reports that Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Archbishop of New York, is not on the shortlist of possible contenders for the top spot, but it does include another American—Cardinal Joseph Tobin, Archbishop of Newark, New Jersey.
Recall that Trump and his wife, Melania, traveled to Rome last weekend to attend the funeral of the first pontiff from Latin America, who died at the age of 88.
The late Pope Francis and Trump had exchanged criticisms over the past decade, mostly related to the pope’s plea for compassion for migrants—a group Trump has repeatedly sought to deport.
DAILY POST also reports that about 135 Catholic cardinals will soon enter a secret conclave to choose the next pope, with no clear frontrunner in sight.
