Trump and Francis, both elected as outsiders, sparred from afar on policy and diverged on leadership style

When the newly elected Pope Francis returned to the front desk of his hotel in Rome to personally settle his bill a day after being introduced to cheering crowds in St. Peter’s Square in 2013, it was a first glimpse into the modesty that would come to define his papacy.

When the newly elected Pope Francis returned to the front desk of his hotel in Rome to personally settle his bill a day after being introduced to cheering crowds in St. Peter’s Square in 2013, it was a first glimpse into the modesty that would come to define his papacy. But for one real estate developer turned reality television star observing developments from his penthouse in Manhattan, it was a sign of something else. “I don’t like seeing the Pope standing at the checkout counter (front desk) of a hotel in order to pay his bill,” Donald Trump, still years from mounting his first presidential bid, wrote on Twitter. “It’s not Pope-like!” There was little in common between now-President Trump and Pope Francis, who died Monday at 88. The two men sparred from afar on issues of immigration and the environment, adopted divergent approaches to the sumptuous trappings of their respective offices, and lived vastly different kinds of lives. “That’s why I’ll never be Pope!” Trump responded to a commenter on his post in 2013, who observed “the difference between the Pope and you is the Pope doesn’t have to constantly brag how great he is.” Yet for all the obvious differences, there was some overlap in how Francis and Trump arrived at their positions, and how they viewed their roles.