Last week, Donald Trump criticized the “very political” Pope Francis for traveling to Mexico, telling Fox News, “I don’t think he understands the danger of the open border that we have with Mexico.”
Prompted to respond to Trump’s criticism Francis told reporters this morning, “A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not Christian. This is not in the gospel.”
Shortly thereafter, Trump issued a press statement, claiming, “No leader, especially a religious leader, should have the right to question another man's religion or faith.”
Fair point, perhaps. But what about billionaire leaders? Or, more specifically, Donald Trump?
Last October, at a rally in Jacksonville, Florida, Trump made two things clear: he’s a Presbyterian and Ben Carson is bat-shit for subscribing to Seventh-day Adventism.
“I'm Presbyterian. Boy, that's down the middle of the road folks,” Trump told rally-goers. “I mean, Seventh-day Adventist, I don't know about. I just don't know about.”
You might even remember that in early January— during a stump speech ahead of the Iowa caucus —Trump said, “to the best of my knowledge, not too many evangelicals come out of Cuba,” referring to eventual caucus-winner Ted Cruz.
And, dependent on how you choose to interpret it, Trump either contradicted or reinforced his don’t-ask-don’t-tell religious policy in proposing a sweeping Muslim ban: on one hand, Trump proposed a ban on all Muslims; on the other hand, Trump proposed a ban on all Muslims. (Note how, in the latter, Trump excludes the entire community of Muslim immigrants—and not just any one Muslim.)
To be fair, Trump’s Muslim ban is predicated on casting out religious animosity to beyond America’s borders. And what better way to combat religious animosity than to criticize others’ religions?
As tends to be the case, Twitter is running with Trump’s rabid hypocrisy, birthing the hashtag, #MakeTheVaticanGreatAgain:
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