Culture

Pope Francis Marvelously Shaded President Trump By Gifting Him With A Climate Change Encyclical

What do you give the man who has everything? Pope Francis knows.

After he and President Trump (along with Melania and Ivanka) posed for a deliciously awkward photo, the time arrived for a traditional gift exchange. As this BBC video reveals, Trump gave the pope a box full of electoral college maps first-edition books authored by Martin Luther King Jr. The pope graciously accepted the offering, and then it came time for the good stuff. Pope Francis handed the president a signed copy of his encyclical letter … on climate change. The same phenomenon that Trump called a Chinese hoax.

The pope knows Trump’s reputation, alright. This wasn’t the most recent encyclical letter that Pope Francis sent to bishops but dates back to 2015. It must be noted, however, that the above video is slightly erroneous in that it shows the pope handing over his essay on nonviolence. The climate change letter was presented afterward, and it clocks in at 192 pages long. Trump reportedly responded, “Well, I’ll be reading them.”

Will Trump actually read these documents? Probably not, but the pope’s message is loud and clear. Pope Francis does not approve of Trump’s rollback of Obama-era climate change regulations or his appointment of a climate change denier to lead the Environmental Protection Agency head. The pope — who recently called Trump “not Christian” due to his immigration policies — just dropped some papal-level shade.

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