President Donald Trump congratulated Pope Leo XIV on being elected pope after a historic conclave that placed an American for the first time at the helm of the Catholic Church.
Trump took to X shortly after Pope Leo XIV made his first appearance in St. Peter’s Square.
“Congratulations to Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, who was just named Pope,” Trump wrote.
“It is such an honor to realize that he is the first American Pope. What excitement, and what a Great Honor for our Country. I look forward to meeting Pope Leo XIV. It will be a very meaningful moment!” the president added.
Prevost’s brother cardinals elected him in a shorter-than-expected conclave, which lasted two days and took only four ballots to reach a result. A two-thirds vote is required to elect a pope.
The speed at which he was elected surprised many, as he was viewed as a longer shot option because of his American heritage.
But the pontiff, who was born in Chicago, Illinois, in 1955, is now part of a lineage of 267 popes dating back to St. Peter.
Prevost taking on the name of “Leo” could signal an affinity for Pope Leo XIII, as – News Senior-Editor-at-Large Rebecca Mansour noted:
His choice of Leo as a papal name is an interesting choice that perhaps is meant to evoke the beloved Leo XIII, who wrote the great 1890 encyclical Rerum novarum, which championed the rights of workers in a changing world and is often heralded by Catholics as a populist document that advocates for the rights of the common man.
-’s Jim Pinkerton wrote about the importance of Rerum novarum in a 2019 Labor Day essay by highlighting an op-ed in which then-Senator — and current Trump Secretary of State — Marco Rubio invoked Rerum novarum.
Pope Leo XIV offered a blessing to those in St. Peter’s Square, where he spoke Italian and Spanish, but not English, during his first public appearance after the conclave.
“This is the peace of Christ risen from the dead. God is close to you all,” he said.
