Political minefield All eyes on how the US president conducts himself

A spectre is haunting Europe: the spectre of Donald Trump flying to the Vatican this weekend and publicly feuding with international leaders in front of St Peter's Basilica in the midst of the sombre rituals and rites that will mark the funeral of Pope Francis.

- Andrew Roth

The US leader's first international trip of his second term comes at one of the most fractious and fraught moments in recent memory, as his "America first" project sets fire to alliances and trade relationships around the world.

Between international tariffs, the wars in Ukraine and in Gaza, the Trump team's open antipathy toward Europe and its hard line on immigration from Central and South America, the papal funeral could prove to be a minefield of international diplomacy.

Trump's overseas engagements in the past have set the stage for some of his most explosive confrontations, and he has bristled at world leaders who have criticised him publicly and castigated those he views as insufficiently deferential. Gatherings of world leaders have set the stage for some of his most divisive debates, such as the 2018 G7 meeting when he clashed with Angela Merkel and other western leaders, or the 2017 Nato summit at which he famously shoved past the Montenegrin prime minister to get to the front of a group photograph.

Compounding tensions are the Trump administration's difficult relationship with the Vatican, including Pope Francis's criticism of Trump's deportation policies as a "major crisis" and declaration that "builders of walls sow fear".

Adding to the diplomatic minefield, it was announced yesterday that the US former president Joe Biden, whom Trump has repeatedly and continually criticised, would also attend the funeral. Trump's predecessor is a lifelong Catholic who met Pope Francis several times and awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom in January before leaving the White House.