Republican frontrunner Donald Trump’s current over-the-top fight with the pope is a great time to revisit this tweet from Christmas 2013:
Donald Trump in 2013: I like Pope Francis because he’s humble, like me
Libby Nelson was Vox’s editorial director, politics and policy, leading coverage of how government action and inaction shape American life. Libby has more than a decade of policy journalism experience, including at Inside Higher Ed and Politico. She joined Vox in 2014.
The new Pope is a humble man, very much like me, which probably explains why I like him so much!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 25, 2013
Many Trump tweets and remarks can be described as “among the most Donald Trump things ever said,” but this one is truly special. The amazing thing is not just that Trump was praising someone he is now publicly fighting with; that’s par for the course for Trump. (He also apparently wanted the pope to be on The Apprentice.)
It’s that Trump has named 31 buildings, 17 golf courses, two colognes, a menswear line, and a type of bottled water after himself — and thinks the key virtue he shares with the Pope is humility.
