As Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re read a homily to the late pontiff highlighting his humanitarian efforts and humility before his body was transferred to an ancient basilica for burial, journalists perched on the colonnades of St. Peter’s Square were instead training their gaze on the movement of U.S. President Donald Trump, tracking his every chance encounter with allies and adversaries through high-contrast binoculars, as police choppers whirred overhead.
Trump’s announcement earlier this week that he would attend the pope’s funeral had prompted a flurry of behind-the-scenes organizing by leaders hoping to get facetime with the American president at the center of a period of extraoardinary geopolitical turmoil.
U.S. allies, especially in Europe, are keen to meet and woo Trump after he slapped 10 percent tariffs on all U.S. imports in early April, giving trading partners 90 days to negotiate deals — and an incentive to make the most of every minute in the president’s immediate orbit. The diplomatic scramble also comes as Ukraine and Russia reportedly near an agreement over a potential ceasefire, after months of acrimonious back and forth brokered by Trump’s administration.
And in the end, there was no shortage of meetings. Early in the day, journalists spotted Trump quietly talking with Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskyy. The Ukrainian leader later said it was a “good meeting,” coming in the wake of reportedly productive talks on Friday between the U.S. and Russia over a potential ceasefire agreement after more than three years of war in Ukraine.
Zelenskyy described the meeting, which took place before the official funeral ceremony, as potentially “historic” and said it paved for a “reliable and lasting peace” in Ukraine, as his office posted a photo of the two leaders sitting across from each other in the cavernous nave of St. Peter’s Basilica, hunched forward and eyes locked in intense discussion.
Opportunity seized
Trump was also seen shaking hands with French President Emmanuel Macron and Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, the EU executive. Von der Leyen, whose imperious, technocratic style clashes with the brash personalism of Trump, has been sidelined by the U.S. administration as the EU seeks to negotiate down tariffs on U.S. imports, and notably absent from the White House during Trump’s first three months in office.