Pope Francis Crushes Donald Trump in Twitter War Over the Billionaire’s Faith
Pope Francis’s remarks on Thursday that U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is “not Christian” due to his views on immigration sparked jokes on social media, and the pope quickly became a trending topic on Twitter in the United States.
The billionaire businessman and former reality TV star called the pope’s comments “disgraceful” and said he was proud to be a Christian.
Twitter users poked fun at the brouhaha.
Television comedy writer Wendy Molyneux (@WendyMolyneux) joked about the controversy by attributing a fake quotation to Trump that mocked the presidential candidate’s penchant for bawdy exaggeration.
“‘You know, a lot of my friends are Popes, and they love what I’m doing. This one Pope is such a loser. And fat.’ – @realDonaldTrump,” Molyneux wrote Thursday.
Paul Begala (@PaulBegala), a political consultant who is an adviser to a Super PAC helping Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, said: “How long before realDonaldTrump says the Pope is totally broke. Doesn’t own a single golf course. Never even dated a supermodel. #Loser.”
“How dare the pope be concerned with the poor & disenfranchised! I mean Jesus never was!” tweeted actor Rainn Wilson (@rainnwilson).
“The Late Show,” hosted by comedian Stephen Colbert, tweeted a Twitter poll Thursday in which it asked “How can Donald Trump get back in the Pope’s good graces?” The options listed were “Cabinet position,” “Purchase indulgences,” “Evict Protestants” and “Sensual back rub.”
The leader of the world’s Roman Catholics was winning the battle on social media: Overall sentiment for Trump was negative, while overall sentiment for Francis was positive, according to social media analytic firm Zoomph.
Trump, long the leader in national opinion polls, and five Republican rivals face off on Saturday in South Carolina’s primary.
While the pope and Trump are now at odds, the real estate developer had previously praised the pontiff.
In 2013, the year Francis began his papacy, Trump compared himself to the pope favorably.
On Christmas Day 2013: Trump tweeted, “The new Pope is a humble man, very much like me, which probably explains why I like him so much!” {eoa}
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