The election of the first US Pope in history is monumental news in America.Every TV network, cable news channel, and most major newspapers are highlighting the story. This narrative will expand further due to the intertwining of politics and pageantry.
Starting with pageantry—Americans have a fondness for a bit of pomp and splendor, ideally steeped in time-honored traditions. The Vatican excels in this domain.
Days of continuous coverage surrounding the papal funeral and conclave—complete with picture-in-picture live shots of the chimney on the Sistine Chapel—demonstrate the American audience’s desire for color, grandeur, tradition, and ritual.
For US TV stations, particularly cable networks, it amounts to hours of free content, lavishly produced by Vatican TV. And it’s an unusual spectacle for America.
The marble, the gold, the art, the ceremonial uniforms, the robes—foreign yet somehow familiar since it’s rooted in the Christian faith.
Moreover, it’s an election—ripe with speculative discussions and ample time to relay it all, culminating in the grand event of a new Pope’s installation.
Who doesn’t enjoy a competition, even if the stakes seem low for Americans?
But then, out of nowhere, it’s an American Pope!
Suddenly, the man in the white robes residing in a renaissance palace next to the world’s largest church, surrounded by Swiss guards in armor, is American.
After all the ceremony and ritual, an American is now at the helm of that tradition until death. A Chicago native, no less. A graduate of Villanova, located just outside Philadelphia.
It’s starting to dawn on people how significant this event is.
First US interview will be a pivotal moment
We’ve heard him speak Italian and Spanish, but the true impact will come when he conducts his first TV interview with an American network (which I assume will happen) in the vernacular of the United States.
A Pope speaking English with a Chicago accent is bound to be a profound moment for this country.
That’s when it will truly resonate—the most prominent religious figure globally is now American.
And Americans have an appetite for fame. It was the commodity that propelled Donald Trump to supreme political power.
Americans celebrate the Pope’s election
He had the kind of name recognition that all politicians aspire to long before entering politics.
His role in the nation’s cultural landscape—from New York tabloids to a cameo in a Home Alone film, reality television, and even bankruptcy cases—contributed to Donald Trump’s notoriety. That’s what attracted “low propensity voters” to support him. Fame first, then politics.
The fame of the papacy is now embodied in an American. This brings us to the political implications of Leo XIV’s appointment: will he emerge as the Anti-Trump?
Catholics, a group Trump should engage with
Andrew Breitbart’s famous saying that politics flows from culture now applies. As Mr. Trump ascended politically through his enduring presence in American culture, Leo XIV has risen to prominence within the Catholic community, benefitting from the status of a head of state.
A tiny and relatively weak state by conventional terms, yet immensely powerful in terms of religious culture and the moral authority built over 2,000 years of accumulated philosophical understanding. It is also a vital diplomatic listening post and intermediary (think of those images of Mr. Trump meeting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in a corner of St. Peter’s during Pope Francis’s funeral).
How will the 267th Bishop of Rome engage with the 47th President of the United States?
Mr. Trump has aligned closely with the Catholic Church in America, primarily for political benefits.
First, consider the numbers: one in five Americans identifies as Catholic, making it the largest single Christian denomination in the country. Therefore, there are numerous votes to be garnered.
Surveys reveal that 53% of US Catholics lean Republican, while 43% side with Democrats. That’s a significant gap, much larger than the 1.5% difference between Mr. Trump and Kamala Harris in the Presidential election.
Thus, Catholics represent a group worth cultivating. Selecting a Catholic Vice President likely proved beneficial as well. Being Catholic somewhat symbolizes that segment of the Trump agenda advocating for church attendance, school prayers, traditional family values, and anti-abortion legislation as virtues in American public life. It’s part of the culture that influences politics.
Change the culture, change the politics, as Breitbart would say. The media organization he founded is currently led by Steve Bannon.
Politics is a numbers game, and US Catholic demographics are too significant to overlook.
For the politically astute, these numbers must be rounded up and harnessed into a winning coalition. Reports indicate that Pope Leo XIV himself has participated in Republican Primaries and general elections (though not in 2016 and 2020).
His brother Lou informed ABC News: “I wouldn’t label him a conservative or a liberal. I’d say he’s sufficiently open-minded.”
Another important demographic Mr. Trump made gains with was the growing Latino population in the US, a group that has fueled growth within the US Catholic Church over the past fifty years.
Across all demographics, Mr. Trump did well by promising to halt further Latino immigration (and others, but primarily Latinos) to the US.
Deportation—sometimes to the harsh realities of El Salvador’s anti-terrorism prison—is now the norm. While appealing to many Americans, the grim reality is disheartening to others.
President Donald Trump expressed anticipation for a meeting with Pope Leo XIV
It may be a cruel showcase, deporting a relatively small number with excessive brutality to dissuade others, and on the surface, it appears to be working, as the number of individuals attempting to cross the southern border irregularly has plummeted.
Mr. Trump has often been depicted as the producer of his own reality show, utilizing imagery to reinforce his messages. However, he is not alone in this regard.
The Catholic Church has long mastered the art of visual communication. Symbolism and visual messages play a crucial role in its communication strategy.
The pageantry serves a purpose and is now employed in support of an American Bishop of Rome.
The open question remains: what will he utilize it for? The underlying issue is how he will navigate his relationship with the President of the United States—his President.
ABC’s Nightly News sought reactions from the Pope’s two brothers regarding the news. Like most Americans, they were initially shocked. Conventional wisdom suggests that no American could assume the Papacy given America’s considerable political, military, and economic influence—why add spiritual and cultural power to it?
Yet this conventional wisdom has been upended, much like other norms since Barack Obama’s election and Mr. Trump’s relentless campaign toward Washington.
It was once said that only Richard Nixon could go to China, so perhaps only an American Pope can serve as a moral counterbalance to the President and his MAGA movement’s most extreme positions.
This could showcase one of the most intriguing cultural dynamics of our times.
The Catholic Church, with its universal approach, operates as a global organization—perhaps the original multinational.
At a time when the MAGA narrative and new right politics in Europe push back against “globalists” and “elites,” politics risks being brutalized in response to substantial challenges posed by mass migration.
The election of an American Pope may serve as one of the most consequential political and ethical messages of our era.
It will significantly rest upon how migrants are treated by governments.
The Pope’s brother John, who still resides in Chicago, told ABC News: “The significant issue for him is immigration, and whether the current treatment is right. I anticipate he’ll comment on it as well.”
A skilled diplomat and political player
The new Pope—Bob to his college friends, Rob to his brother Lou—is also a South American Pope, a naturalized citizen of Peru.
This aspect is likely to shape his perspective. He is seen as a conciliator, someone who played a mediating role amidst divisions among Peruvian Bishops between proponents of Liberation Theology on the left and Opus Dei followers on the right.
Furthermore, there’s the name he has chosen—Leo XIV. The last Pope Leo advocated for Catholic social teaching: workers’ rights, trade unions, and a critical stance toward Laissez-Faire capitalism and its excesses.
However, Leo XIII was also a cunning diplomat and political figure, urging French Catholics to back the Third Republic (contrary to monarchical tradition), opposing the new Italian state over lost papal territories, and notably alleviating the Kulturkampf in Germany—Otto von Bismarck’s aggressive treatment of the church during the unification of the Reich.
The Trump/MAGA/Breitbart kulturkampf-in-support-of-politics in America has extended globally, with techniques mimicked in smaller entities elsewhere.
Can another Pope named Leo resist involvement in this cultural struggle?
Minds have been made up
Reportedly naturally reserved and described as “not a show pony,” the new Pope doesn’t appear eager to confront the President publicly.
Besides, the Vatican prefers to operate behind the scenes. Confrontations seem unlikely.
Yet, some prominent Trump supporters have already made their judgments.
Laura Loomer, a MAGA conspiracy theorist with close ties to the President (who has seen four national security officials dismissed), commented on the new Pope.
“He is anti-Trump, anti-MAGA, pro-open borders, and a total Marxist, just like Pope Francis. Catholics have nothing positive to anticipate. Just another Marxist puppet in the Vatican.”
This comment arose from a 2015 article in the Washington Post by New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan, titled: “Why Donald Trump’s anti-immigration rhetoric is problematic.” The then Bishop Prevost had reposted it on Twitter.
More recently, he shared an article from the National Catholic Reporter on X, titled ‘JD Vance is wrong: Jesus doesn’t request that we rank our love for others.’
Cardinal Dolan was among those who participated in the Conclave that elected Robert Prevost as Pope. Last week, Donald Trump appointed Cardinal Dolan to a new White House advisory panel on religion.
Ah yes, this church-state dynamic is complex. And hosting an American Pope is likely to complicate it further.
