Trump ditches his feud in gracious visit with the pope ‘I won't forget what you said,’ the president says as their meeting came to a close. By Louis Nelson and Giada Zampano
| 05/24/2017 05:54 AM EDT
VATICAN CITY — President Donald Trump visited Wednesday with Pope Francis, one of his highest profile feuding partners from last year’s campaign, exchanging gifts in a meeting that the president labeled “fantastic.”
Trump’s stop at the Vatican comes amid a nine-day, multi-nation trip, his first as president. Trump also met Wednesday with Italian political leaders, but the visit with Pope Francis was widely considered one of the trip’s crucial moments, given the rhetoric the two men had hurled at one another from across the Atlantic during the presidential election.
The president was effusively gracious to the pope throughout the meeting, according to the traveling pool of reporters who were allowed to observe some of Trump’s time with him, thanking him repeatedly as they exchanged gifts. Trump again told the pope, "Thank you. Thank you. I won't forget what you said,” as their meeting came to a close. Pope Francis responded by telling the president "buena suerte," Spanish for "good luck."
“Honor of a lifetime to meet His Holiness Pope Francis. I leave the Vatican more determined than ever to pursue PEACE in our world,” Trump wrote on Twitter following his visit.
Trump was accompanied at the meetings, which a traveling pool of reporters was briefly allowed to see, by senior adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner and his wife Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter who is also a White House adviser. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, First Lady Melania Trump and National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster were also among the U.S. delegation.
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http://www.politico.com/story/2017/05/24/trump-meets-with-pope-francis-238752
