“Thank you. I won’t forget what you said,” Trump told Pope Francis, before leaving the Pope’s private study after a half-hour private meeting.
Neither Trump nor the Pope revealed what their conversation entailed, but readouts from the White House and the Vatican highlighted terrorism, climate change and peace as agenda items covered.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, briefing reporters on Air Force One after the meeting, said terrorism and climate change came up. He said the Vatican’s secretary of state raised climate change and encouraged Trump to remain in the Paris agreement.
Tillerson said the President “hasn’t made a final decision,” and likely will not until “after we get home.”
In a statement, the Vatican said only that the two men discussed “the promotion of peace in the world through political negotiation and interreligious dialogue” and homed in on the need to protect Christians in the Middle East.
“He is something,” Trump said of the Pope later in the day, during a meeting with Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni. “We had a fantastic meeting. We’re liking Italy very, very much and it was an honor to be with the Pope.”
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