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UNLIKE A PRAYER
Donald Trump’s global rampage has drawn the pope’s ire. The White House insists that Trump is still on his good side.
President Donald Trump has publicly mused about finding [ [link removed] ] ways to improve his odds of getting into heaven, which he admits aren’t looking so hot. But that hasn’t stopped his administration from allegedly picking a fight with the leader of the Catholic Church — in a spectacle made even more dramatic given Pope Leo’s American roots. Now, the White House is trying to squash this beef.
The bitter feud between the Trump administration and the Church came to light on Wednesday, following a report [ [link removed] ] that Elbridge Colby, the widely-despised [ [link removed] ] Pentagon policy chief, tried to bully the Vatican’s former ambassador to the U.S. into supporting Trump’s warmongering during a tense meeting in January.
“The United States has the military power to do whatever it wants in the world,” Colby reportedly told Cardinal Christophe Pierre during a meeting at the Pentagon. “The Catholic Church had better take its side.”
The Defense Department tried swatting down the drama on social media [ [link removed] ] today, calling the meeting “substantive, respectful, and professional” alongside a few photos of Colby and Pierre smiling and shaking hands. The U.S. Embassy to the Holy See also chimed in [ [link removed] ], saying that Pierre “emphatically denied the media’s portrayal of his meeting.”
But the Vatican was so alarmed by news of the meeting that Leo scrapped his plans to travel to the United States this year for the country’s 250th anniversary celebrations, according to Christopher Hale [ [link removed] ], who writes a newsletter about the Church. The pope is opting for a virtual appearance [ [link removed] ] instead.
Leo has emerged as an increasingly outspoken Trump critic. The White House is acting like it doesn’t care.
Leo has repeatedly called out Trump’s foreign policy decisions, describing the threat to wipe Iran off this map as “truly unacceptable. [ [link removed] ]” He also hinted at disagreements with Trump’s team as far back as January: “War is back in vogue and a zeal for war is spreading,” he tweeted [ [link removed] ].
Despite the criticism, White House spokesperson Anna Kelly insisted that the Trump administration has a “positive” relationship with the Vatican, in an email to What A Day.
Consider this critique, however, of the Trump administration’s appeals to religious values: “We cannot claim to love and defend life while caring only about the unborn, without recognizing that the lives of migrants who die at sea are also lives,” Cardinal Pietro Parolin, a top Vatican official, said this week [ [link removed] ]. He added that the Christian faith is not a “display counter” from which the buyer gets to choose their values. Does that sound like a positive relationship?
The Vatican won’t be happy if the U.S. keeps dropping bombs. But Trump doesn’t seem to be listening. “Our great Military is Loading Up and Resting, looking forward, actually, to its next Conquest,” he wrote on social media today.
WHAT ELSE? 👀
Negotiators from Israel and Lebanon are expected [ [link removed] ] to meet in Washington, D.C. next week to discuss a potential ceasefire. The news comes after Israel reportedly [ [link removed] ] bombed more than 100 locations in Lebanon on Wednesday, killing at least 300 people in 10 minutes.
Trump’s ceasefire plan in the Gaza Strip is also failing, [ [link removed] ] according to a new analysis by five humanitarian groups. “Palestinians are still experiencing more of the same: going to bed hungry in flooded tents, facing long lines for clean water, and succumbing to diseases and injuries without a healthcare system or basic medical supplies,” Oxfam America President Abby Maxman said in a statement.
First Lady Melania Trump raised questions [ [link removed] ] by hosting a press conference today, where she denied accusations that she had close ties to deceased child sex predator Jeffrey Epstein. “I have never had any knowledge of Epstein’s abuse of his victims.” Melania told reporters. “Epstein did not introduce me to Donald Trump.” As Crooked’s Tommy Vietor put it [ [link removed] ]: “What the fuck was that Melania statement??? What story are they frontrunning over at the White House??”
The CDC delayed publishing a report showing the benefits [ [link removed] ] of the COVID vaccine because the acting director has concerns about the methodology, the Washington Post reports. The report, which passed the agency’s scientific review process, found that the vaccine had “cut the likelihood of emergency department visits and hospitalizations for healthy adults last winter by about half,” the outlet writes.
The Department of Justice arrested an Army veteran [ [link removed] ] for allegedly leaking classified information about the elite Delta Force commando unit to a journalist. Seth Harp, who wrote a book about the unit, came to the woman’s defense: “She has committed no crime. Trump’s unhinged DOJ will not even say what ‘classified information’ she allegedly leaked. Her arrest and imprisonment is an outrage,” Harp tweeted.
The current Supreme Court is the first since the 1950s [ [link removed] ] to reject a majority of civil rights claims involving women and minorities, according to a Washington Post analysis.
Why have Democrats have been saying the word “fuck” so often? [ [link removed] ] It’s up for debate whether this newfound affinity for profanity derives from genuine anger with current affairs, or a desire to seem like a normal, relatable, human person. Of all lawmakers, Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) drops the F-bomb the most often, according to a New York Times analysis, though he was cursing publicly years before it was cool.
LIGHT AT THE END… ☀️
A federal judge ruled that the Trump administration [ [link removed] ] can’t revoke legal protections of more than 5,000 Ethiopians who live and work in the United States. It’s a blow to Trump’s efforts to strip migrants of protections, which have repeatedly been challenged in court.
On that note, it’s now [ [link removed] ]way [ [link removed] ] easier to become Canadian. [ [link removed] ] Anyone with relatives who were born there (no matter how long ago!) can become citizens, according to a revised law. Living a life focused on ice hockey and poutine does sound pretty appealing right about now.
Grindr, the gay dating app, is making a splash [ [link removed] ] at the upcoming White House Correspondents Weekend, hosting a party of its own in Georgetown. “This is going to be elevated Grindr,” Joe Hack, head of global government affairs, told TheWrap. “This isn’t going to be a bunch of shirtless men walking around. This is going to be very elevated, elegant, but still us.”
People who take a two-week break from social media [ [link removed] ] could see an improved attention span, according to a large-scale study. The detox’s benefit is equivalent to erasing 10 years of cognitive decline, researchers said. The lesson here: Touch grass… for two weeks! Also, maybe those luddite teens [ [link removed] ] were on to something.
Astronauts aboard the Artemis II moon mission are [ [link removed] ] conducting a study to determine how microgravity, radiation, and other parts of zooming through space can affect the human body. The experiment uses living bone marrow cells drawn from the astronauts before takeoff, which will then be compared to cells when they come back.
An octopus fossil that holds the Guinness World Record [ [link removed] ] for being the oldest octopus fossil isn’t actually an octopus fossil after all, researchers found. The 300-million-year-old creature looks more like a hand-sized blob, or as one scientist put it, “like white mush.” The big giveaway: It had too many teeth to be an octopus (and I’m just learning that octopuses have teeth). When I raised this story up in our daily meeting, Crooked’s Jane Coaston said: “Noooooope. Noooooooo. Noooooo.”
A scruffy stray terrier in Maryland lived on [ [link removed] ] sandwich and doughnut scraps for months, provided by construction workers who built her an insulated den. She was hard to catch, but after being spotted on the side of a highway, a Maryland woman wrangled the small pup — and adopted her. “The degree to which she has made herself comfortable is both heartwarming and hilarious to us … because she just is already queen,” the owner said. She named the dog Susan.
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