President Donald Trump on Tuesday jokingly said he’d like to be the next leader of the Roman Catholic Church, days after Pope Francis, 88, died.

U.S. President Donald Trump joked on Tuesday that hed like to succeed Pope Francis, who passed away last week at the age of 88. When asked who he would prefer as the next leader of the Catholic Church,

Pope Francis, the 266th and current pope of the Catholic Church, passed away on April 21, 2025, at the age of 88. He died in his residence at Domus Sanctae Marthae in Vatican City, following complications from a cerebral stroke and cardiac arrest.

All Roman Catholics are Christians, but not the other way around, differing in beliefs about the sacraments, the pope, the saints and the Virgin Mary.

The winner must receive at least two-thirds of the votes from those cardinals who are under age 80 and thus eligible to participate in the balloting.

Pope Francis' funeral brought world leaders, monarchs, and hundreds of thousands of people to Rome on Saturday to bid him farewell in a ceremony of breathtaking spectacle that offered age-old Catholic funeral rites and touching moments of personal grief.

For Catholics and non-Catholics alike, fascination with the pope and rituals such as the papal conclave continue to transfix and intrigue.