President Trump met with Pope Francis at the Vatican on Wednesday, a highly anticipated first meeting between the two leaders who had previously publicly clashed over immigration politics.
 
By ALEXANDER MALLIN JORDYN PHELPS PHOEBE NATANSONRILEY BEGGIN, ABC News

The two met for a private one-on-one meeting, and also exchanged gifts in front of reporters and the president’s visiting delegation, which included First Lady Melania Trump, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, and White House advisers and the president’s son-in-law and daughter, Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump.
 
The president gave the Pope a case of books by Martin Luther King, while the Pope gave Trump a medal by a Roman artist inscribed with an olive branch.
 
Francis explained that the branch is a symbol of peace, and Trump replied: “We can use peace.”
 
The Pope also presented Trump with three books he said he sends to all Catholics: one on family, one on the gospel and one on “care of our common home, the environment.”
 
“Well, I’ll be reading them,” Trump said.
 
The visit to the Vatican was the third stop of Trump’s tour of sites representing three major religions. Over the weekend he stopped in Saudi Arabia, where he delivered an address to Muslim leaders, and Monday through Tuesday he visited Israel and the West Bank and met with Israeli and Palestinian leaders.
 
rump and Francis certainly had differences to potentially iron out during their meeting. In February 2016, the pontiff remarked on then-candidate Trump’s key proposal to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, saying it was un-Christian.
 
“A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges is not Christian,” Francis said.
 
Trump responded with a statement calling Francis’ remarks “disgraceful.”
 
“No leader, especially a religious leader, should have the right to question another man’s religion or faith.” Trump said. “They’re using the pope as a pawn, and they should be ashamed of themselves — that’s the Mexican government — they should be ashamed of themselves for doing so, especially when so many lives are involved and when illegal immigration is so rampant and so dangerous and so bad for the United States.”
 
Also, Trump and Francis have staked out different approaches to climate change, and their meeting comes as Trump weighs whether to pull the United States out of the Paris Climate Agreement, which he promised to cancel within his first 100 days in office.
 
Asked recently what he expected from his meeting with Trump, given their differing views, Francis replied, “I will tell him what I think. He will tell me what he thinks. But I never wanted to judge someone before I listen to the person first.”