Trump Lures Pope Francis into 2016 Race
So now The Donald is running against the pope.
After waging a presidential campaign that appears to have been all but directed by Triumph the Insult Dog, billionaire developer Donald Trump has outdone his earlier displays of bold audacity. This time he's taking on Pope Francis.
That's right. A man whose name is associated with wealth, power and self-promotion is taking on a man who chose to be named after the patron saint of the poor, Francis of Assisi.
Yet, as much as Trump risks losing voters in heavily Catholic states, he may have helped to energize other elements of his base, particularly social conservatives who think Francis' policies have been too liberal.
Either way, it is almost amusing to watch Trump play the victim card like a champ, all because his little feelings were somehow injured by the Pope's opposition to Trump's signature issue: his desire to wall off the Mexican border and somehow persuade Mexico to pick up the bill.
Pope Francis' response to that questionable idea was clear and direct: "A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not Christian," Francis said in response to a question from reporters on the papal plane back from Mexico. "This is not in the Gospel."
As criticisms of Trump go, this one falls on the mild side. Yet it was too painfully precise for the notoriously thin-skinned Trump to shrug off.
Instead, the billionaire fell back into his usual civility-challenged defensiveness. He asserted during a South Carolina campaign stop, that if the Islamic State attacks the Vatican, "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."
Thank you, General Trump.
But what really caught my ear was the theological rebuke in Trump's prepared response to the Pope: "For a religious leader to question a person's faith is disgraceful," he said. "No leader," Trump declared, "especially a religious leader, should have the right to question another man's religion or faith."
...continued
(c) 2016 CLARENCE PAGE DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.
