President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump will attend the funeral services for Pope Francis in Rome later this week.
Francis died Monday morning at the age of 88. Vatican officials have not yet announced plans for his funeral, though Vatican rules require a papal funeral to be held four to six days after the date of death.
“Melania and I will be going to the funeral of Pope Francis, in Rome,” Trump wrote on Truth Social Monday evening. “We look forward to being there!”
Trump’s only public appearance Monday came at the annual White House Easter Egg Roll, where he briefly spoke to reporters about Francis.
“He was a very good man who loved the world, and he especially loved people that were having a hard time, and that’s good with me,” Trump said.
Later in the day, the president signed an executive order directing all federal flags to be lowered to half-staff to honor Francis.
White House officials did not say who else would be traveling with the president to Rome. George W. Bush was the last president to attend a papal funeral. On that 2005 trip, Bush was accompanied by then-first lady Laura Bush, then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and former Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton.
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Vice President JD Vance, who is on a diplomatic visit to India, met with Francis on Easter Sunday while in Rome and expressed condolences Monday morning following the pope’s death. The vice president, who is Catholic, has publicly sparred with Church officials over the administration’s immigration policies but shared a link to a COVID-19 era sermon that Francis delivered as part of his Monday tribute.
“I’ll always remember him for the below homily he gave in the very early days of COVID,” Vance wrote. “It was really quite beautiful.”