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Trump v. Pope Leo XIV? Where Do Washington and Rome Go From Here?

The following is an excerpt of Daily Signal Politics Editor Bradley Devlin’s interview with Paul Kengor, editor of The American Spectator and author of the new book “American Pontiff,” for the “Signal Sitdown,” which premieres on the Daily Signal’s YouTube page at 6:30 a.m. EDT on July 8.

This transcript has been edited for clarity.

Bradley Devlin: We’re a year into this papacy now. A year of an American pope, Pope Leo XIV. Where do things stand? What major moves have been made? 

Paul Kengor: One of the things that I predicted—it wasn’t much of a prediction, right? The people that elected Robert Francis Prevost—and the election—well, first of all, the fact that an American pontiff, an American, was chosen pope was just astonishing, right? Completely astonishing. But as I started doing research and we got information, especially from Vaticanistas, Italian journalists and so forth, the overwhelming desire of the College of Cardinals—and there were 135 of them that were voting cardinals; 133 actually made it to the conclave—this would have been May 7, 2025. 

They all wanted stability and normalcy brought back to the papacy, right? After 12 years of Francis, everybody—whether they were liberal, conservative, moderate—were all tired of the chaos and division. There was a lack of peace in the Church, right? And it’s very telling that his first words when he walks out onto the loggia May 8, 2025, were, “Peace.” 

In fact, in Italian, “La pace sia con tutti voi,” “Peace be with all of you.” I’ll never forget that because first he walks out, and I’m astonished, right? I was at our office at The American Spectator. We were preparing for an event that night—in fact, I think you were probably at the event. And the white smoke went up—fourth ballot—so within about 24 hours, right, we had a habemus papam. We had a pope. 

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