THE PRESIDENT AND THE POPE: ONE LAST ROUND

Pope Francis:
Donald… you’ve built towers that scrape the sky and courts that bend to your will. But do you see the man beneath the golden light? I speak not as your judge, but as your brother in creation. You cut life-saving aid to Africa not with a scalpel, but with a chainsaw. Why?

Donald Trump:
Your Holiness, I don’t apologize for putting America first. That’s what I was elected to do. Look, USAID and PEPFAR were bloated programs. We’re not in the business of funding the world’s problems anymore. We’ve got enough of our own.

Francis:
Yes, nations must tend to their people—but not at the cost of forsaking the forgotten. In Sub-Saharan Africa, your decision stopped delivery of AIDS medicines, closed clinics, and abandoned millions who were dependent on critical healthcare. You didn't redirect the money to healing programs in the US. You awarded $48 million to a private contractor for the job of building immigrant detention centers.

Trump:
We’re protecting our borders. What do you want me to do? Let everyone in? These people—you think they’re all saints? I had to take action. And those programs, frankly, weren’t working like we thought. I cut the fat.

Francis:
And in doing so, you cut the hands that fed the hungry and the arms that held the dying. I saw mothers walking days to find a clinic only to find a locked door. I saw children losing their teachers, their nurses, their lives.

Trump:
Sometimes you have to make the tough calls. Anyway, if Africa wants help, maybe China can write the check.

Francis:
You mistake cruelty for courage, and power for providence. A great nation does not rise by trampling the weak—it rises by lifting others with it. Your legacy is being shaped not by the votes you counted, but by the lives you disregarded. I ask you plainly—do you believe America is too poor to help feed the starving and heal the sick?

Trump:
Of course not. But let’s not pretend this is all about compassion. There’s a game being played here. You think I don’t see it? Globalists, elites—they want control, and aid programs are just part of their corrupt machine.

Francis:
No, Donald. That’s where you’re wrong. The poor are not pawns. They are sacred. And faith—true faith—is not a tool of power. It is a mirror of God’s mercy. You wrap your policies in the cloth of religion, but behind the altar is a vault. You’ve made a gospel of wealth, and you expect the faithful to kneel before it.

Trump:
I’ve brought faith back into the White House. You think the people in Middle America care about clinics in Kenya? They want safety, prosperity, jobs.

Francis:
And they deserve them. But dignity is not a limited resource. There is enough grace to go around. We are not asked to choose between neighbor and stranger. Christ fed five thousand without first checking their passports.

Trump:
That’s beautiful, but let me tell you—politics is about survival.

Francis:
Then I pray, Donald, that you remember this: survival without soul is not victory. It is decay. One day, even you will be asked not what walls you put up, but the bridges you built, by whom you embraced.

Trump:
We’ll see what history says.

Francis:
History will be written by the next generation. They will judge you, but you still have time.