A test of humanity: A short lesson from a minor Trumpian outrage du jour
[the president and the pope]
“‘Disgusting’ or ‘hilarious’? Opinions split on Trump’s Pope pic” was the Independent headline on the latest flash-in-the-pan outrage from President Trump, namely, that he had posted an A.I.-generated image of himself attired in papal regalia to Truth Social and retweeted it from the official White House Xitter account. This followed Trump “joking” that he’d “like to be pope” and Senator Lindsey Graham unctuously “supporting” Trump’s bid for the papacy.
Let’s be clear: If I were to draw up a list of the top 100 outrages of the 100-odd first days of Trump’s second term, this might be, at best, an honorable mention. To list only a few highlights:
He pardoned all the January 6 convicts, including the ones who assaulted police officers and were found guilty of seditious conspiracy.
He basically suspended America’s refugee program—no more refugees from any country—while carving out an unasked-for exception for one population: White Afrikaners from South Africa.
Without due process, he deported (or maybe “subjected to extraordinary rendition” might be more accurate, or “reverse extradited”) hundreds of immigrants of varying legal status to a Salvadoran hellhole, a “black hole of human rights” from which prisoners do not return. Some of these people were guilty of no crime at all; others were guilty of no more than a misdemeanor illegal border crossing.
His administration disobeyed a court order to return planes carrying most of these prisoners to El Salvador. Since then, they have stonewalled court orders to facilitate the return of one prisoner who was protected by a withholding of removal court order, disingenuously claiming that the president has no power to return him before he admitted that, in fact, he could do it with a phone call. While no one in his administration has yet been indicted of criminal contempt of court, one judge has found probable cause for the charge, and the process continues to play out.
He has placed a string of not just unqualified but “anti-qualified” loyalists in key positions of government, leading to ever-increasing destructive chaos, all of which could be a feature rather than a bug.
He has made a steady string of insulting threats against the sovereignty of Canada, including threatening to use economic force to compel Canada to accept annexation and demeaningly referring to the prime minister of Canada as “governor.” He has also made similar threats against Greenland.
I could go on and on—and, if I had all the time in the world, I would be writing about this stuff every damn day,1 because it’s that dangerous and people need to hear it.2
Given the pressing importance of so many serious issues and the comparative triviality of Trump’s trolling papal aspirations, why have I chosen to write about this one? For two reasons:
partly because I think it helpfully highlights something about how it seems Trump’s mind works; and
partly because of an underlying moral issue that goes to one of the deepest foundation stones of human decency: the courtesy and respect we owe to those who are in grief and mourning.
How Trump’s mind works: The art of the bid
Trump is, of course, “joking” about wanting to be pope. Except he doesn’t really joke. Not the way other people do, and certainly not about the one activity that is sacred to him: acquisition.
When Trump first started talking about annexing Canada as the 51st state, most people thought he was “joking.” Some people might still think this talk isn’t “serious” in the sense that it’s unfeasible, but few careful observers still think Trump is just joshing around. Whether or not the old “Take Trump seriously, not literally” saw applies here, Canadian alarm and anxiety over Trump’s comments is a feature, not a bug.3 Some may suppose that Trump’s threats are a negotiating tactic, and that he just wants something from Canada. I don’t think the distinction matters; I even doubt whether it exists in Trump’s mind. I think such comments are fundamentally about seeing what kind of reaction he gets and what he can get as a result.
In a word, I think such remarks from Trump are best understood as a bid. He bids on literally anything that takes his fancy, however unrealistic it might seem. If nothing else, it’s a way of asserting his ego into every arena, of making every story a story about him. Not unlike a pick-up artist who accepts repeated failure as the cost for maximizing success, Trump is okay making bids that fail, especially if he can play them off as “jokes.” (This is not just an analogy. Trump appears to have a long history of approaching women the same way he approaches anything else he wants, including, as he has threatened to do with Canada, using force.) Of course he hates to lose when it’s clear that he wants to win!
Trump’s presidential career started as a bid of this sort. At first few people took him seriously; when he won in 2016, there was a lot of speculation that he hadn’t expected or even wanted to win. I suspect that the question may not have an answer; it’s in the nature of Trump’s bidding process that how serious he is depends on whether he wins or loses.
Bidding is how he finds out what the world will let him get away with. If he really wants something and gets a bad reaction, he stops talking about it for a little while and then comes back to it. This bid—the papacy—is approximately as far out of reach as a trip to Pluto. Still, “joking” about it remains the best way of asserting his ego in this arena.
The sacredness of grief
Many of Trump’s defenders are, of course, laughing off off the whole story as a joke: Trump saying crazy stuff to own the libs and making his enemies’ heads explode. This is a common move, and in practice there’s almost nothing a certain kind of person won’t “joke” about. “Ironic” racism, “ironic” misogyny, and “ironic” antisemitism are hallmarks of a style of rightwing discourse that used to be called alt-right before it became the establishment.
But fine. Let’s call it a joke. Certainly many people exist who find the Pope Trump memery hilarious—and, for the sake of discussion, I will not cross-examine their funnybone. If something is funny to you, then it’s funny, and I give the widest possible latitude to humor. I am attached to the remark of G.K. Chesterton that “A good joke is the one ultimate and sacred thing which cannot be criticized. Our relations with a good joke are direct and even divine relations.”
So be it. And yet. For everything there is a time and a place. And the time after someone has died is very widely recognized as a time for a certain kind of circumspection—a circumspection that, at the bare minimum, precludes trolling.
Let’s unpack that:
Pope Francis’s death is the first death of a reigning pope in 20 years, a profoundly momentous event. If Pope Francis was a controversial leader, he was also (as I noted in my last homily) widely beloved beyond the boundaries of the Catholic Church and even the Christian world. Countless Catholics and even non-Catholics are in grief and mourning, and, too often, anxiety about the future of the Church and the world. Such people are emotionally and even spiritually vulnerable and sensitive.
Few things are, in a natural and human sense, more purely sacred—that is, more demanding of respect, circumspection, and decorum, regardless of differences in beliefs or ideologies—than death and grief. To respect those in mourning and give them space, no matter who they are or who has died, is among the most fundamental and widely recognized principles of human decency. Among the most despicable acts of sacrilege and desecration (again, in a natural and human sense), then, is to trample on the grief of people in mourning.4
The sacredness of grief does not preclude joking; on the contrary, laughter at funerals is almost as common as tears, and rightly and justly so. But the laughter must be the laughter of grief, of the mourning and for the mourning. And the feelings of others must be respected: It’s one thing for one mourner at a funeral to tell a quiet joke about the deceased to someone who is sure to appreciate it; to tell such a joke in a homily or eulogy to all assembled, one had better choose one’s material very carefully and know one’s audience very well. Above all, you don’t troll the grieving.
Donald Trump, not entirely unlike Pope Francis in this respect, is both widely beloved and deeply controversial.5 For the purposes of my present argument, I will simply say that people are entitled to their feelings and views of both men. This being the case, though, to any thinking person with the slightest understanding of human nature and concern for their fellow humans, it should be as obvious as day following night that, while some people (particularly Trump fans who weren’t crazy about Pope Francis) may find the Pope Trump meme funny, very many other people will find it offensive and hurtful at a time of grief and mourning as well as religious anxiety about the future. A month ago I would have found the Pope Trump meme in poor taste but unremarkable. At the present moment, Trump, Graham, and their enablers are trampling on the grief and anxiety of countless Catholics and non-Catholics, trolling the grieving at a time of mourning, which is a special form of contempt for one’s fellow humans.
For the purposes of my argument, I don’t care whether anyone agrees or disagrees that the Pope Trump memery is offensive. It’s enough that, to many mourning Pope Francis and anxious about the future, this is trampling on their grief and anxiety. Whether or not trampling on the grief and anxiety of others is something one should care about is beyond the scope of my argument. It is a test of humanity.6
Update
I’m pleased to see that Bishop Thomas Paprocki of the Diocese of Springfield, Illinois has denounced this insult to Catholics and called on the president to apologize.
Someone who is writing regularly about Trump here on Substack, and doing so very well, is
at “Letters From an American.” The writing at is also very good in this regard.Some people need to hear it because they see it themselves and they can start to feel crazy if someone like me doesn’t say “Yes, it’s real, it’s really happening, I see it too.” This is particularly the case for me as a deacon writing for Catholics who may in some cases be surrounded by fellow Catholics cheering everything Trump does. They need to hear it so as not to feel alone in the Church. And others need to hear it because they don’t see it—and, while it may be vanishingly rare for the scales to fall from the eyes of such a person, I have known it to happen. We live in hope.
For anyone who may be skeptical about the extent of Trump’s interest in Canada or of the clarity and persistence with which he has expressed it, an incomplete list:
So far as I know, Trump first brought up annexing Canada with then–prime minister Trudeau at Mar-a-Lago last November, which Fox News reported caused “the prime minister and others to laugh nervously.” Trump then added that although “prime minister” is a better title, Trudeau could still be governor of the 51st state.
Days later, in December, Trump posted on Truth Social both talking up annexing Canada and repeatedly referring to Trudeau as “Governor Justin Trudeau of the Great State of Canada,” adding, “I look forward to seeing the Governor again soon so that we may continue our in depth talks on Tariffs and Trade.”
On December 19, Trump wrote on Truth Social, “Many Canadians want Canada to become the 51st State. They would save massively on taxes and military protection. I think it is a great idea. 51st State!!!”
On January 6, after Trudeau resigned, Trump wrote on Truth Social, “Many people in Canada LOVE being the 51st State. The United States can no longer suffer the massive Trade Deficits and Subsidies that Canada needs to stay afloat. Justin Trudeau knew this, and resigned. If Canada merged with the U.S., there would be no Tariffs, taxes would go way down, and they would be TOTALLY SECURE from the threat of the Russian and Chinese Ships that are constantly surrounding them. Together, what a great Nation it would be!!!”
The next day, January 7, Trump said at a Mar-a-Lago press conference, “They should be a state, that’s what I told Trudeau when he came down” and added that he would use “economic force” to make Canada submit. “You get rid of that artificially-drawn line and you take a look at what that looks like, and it would also be much better for national security—don’t forget, we basically protect Canada,” he said.
On January 24 Trump told reporters, “I would love to see Canada be the 51st state. The Canadian citizens, if that happened, would get a big tax cut, tremendous tax cut, because they’re very highly taxed. You wouldn’t have to worry about military, you wouldn’t have to worry about many of the things, you would have better health coverage, you would have much better health coverage. So I think the people of Canada would like it, you know, if it’s explained.”
On February 7, during a Super Bowl interview, Trump specifically stating that making Canada the 51st state was “a real thing,” not a joke.
On March 11, following imposition of additional tariffs on Canadian imports—the “economic pressure” he mentioned in January—Trump posted on Truth Social advocating for Canadian statehood to eliminate trade barriers.
On March 28, speaking to Prime Minister Mark Carney, Trump again spoke about Canada as the 51st state. “The president brings this up all the time,” Carney said.
On April 15, White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt stated, “The president still maintains his position on Canada. The United States has been subsidizing Canada’s national defense, and he believes that Canadians would benefit greatly from becoming the 51st state of the United States of America.”
Last week, when Time magazine suggested that his statements about annexing Canada might be “trolling,” he said, “I’m really not trolling.” He also said, “the only way this thing really works is for Canada to become a state.”
Finally, on Canada’s Election Day, Trump said that Canadians should “Elect the man who has the strength and wisdom to cut your taxes in half, increase your military power, for free, to the highest level in the World, have your Car, Steel, Aluminum, Lumber, Energy, and all other businesses, QUADRUPLE in size, WITH ZERO TARIFFS OR TAXES, if Canada becomes the cherished 51st State of the United States of America. No more artificially drawn line from many years ago. Look how beautiful this land mass would be. Free access with NO BORDER. ALL POSITIVES WITH NO NEGATIVES. IT WAS MEANT TO BE! America can no longer subsidize Canada with the Hundreds of Billions of Dollars a year that we have been spending in the past. It makes no sense unless Canada is a State!”.”
To trample the grief of others deliberately and programmatically—like Westboro Baptist Church picketing military funerals with their hate signs, or like Alex Jones with his school-shooting trutherism—goes beyond the worst I can imagine in ordinary fallen human nature. It seems to me the act of a psychopath or a cultist or both, and even these words pale. If anything in this world deserves to be called satanic, it is this.
On Facebook someone posted on my wall that “Trump and Pope Francis had many things in common.” After some thought, I replied that “so did Jesus and Charles Manson, come to think of it.” In response to his follow-up query, I added:
They were both charismatic leaders who cultivated devoted followings, experienced rejection from mainstream society, spoke in sometimes enigmatic sayings, and expressed apocalyptic worldviews in which they themselves played a pivotal role.
Of course it’s also true that one of those two men cared deeply about other people, with special concern for the poor and marginal, and lived sacrificially for the good of others and called others to do the same. The other man was a pathological narcissist who nihilistically destroyed other people’s lives in the cause of his own egocentric pursuits. Wait, which pair of men were we talking about? I may have lost track.
Trump, I suspect, fails this test at a very early stage. I said above that grief is sacred. If there is anything about the man that can be known with confidence, it is that nothing is sacred to Trump but Trump. St. Paul said of some men that their god is their belly; for Trump, his ego is God. If you are in denial about that—if you think he “cares about America,” or that God or his fellow man mean anything to him—I can’t help you.
Insulting. All Catholic should be furious. But not just Catholics soon. He’ll be dressing himself up as Moses, Mohammed, Buddha, etc. etc. we’re still in morning for Pope Francis; the antithesis of Trump don’t ever ask how low Trump can go. We haven’t hit that bottom yet.
I recall reading Romance of the Three Kingdoms, the epic Chinese novel. Throughout the book, one warlord or another would express his intent to kill someone, either a captured enemy or one of his own followers. Then, if he got too much pushback from his other followers, he would say it was all a big joke. While I doubt Trump read this novel, he certainly seems to share the warlords’ sense of "humor".