Why pick the first American Pope now? Robert Prevost was made Pope Leo XIV as a counterweight to President Trump.
There’s been little ambiguity about the new pope’s politics and less about the overall agenda.
Pope Francis had all but rigged the process to assure another radical successor.
President Trump’s return represents an ongoing institutional crisis. The ideological battleground is going to be the border and Prevost has been chosen to lead the response in the largest sense possible.
Choosing an American Pope is supposed to raise the stakes and elevate a leader with the stature to rally opposition to Trump and more specifically to his immigration policies by invoking the familiar tropes about the need for welcoming in every single migrant.
That’s what this is about.
This is less about the long-term future and more about the next four years.
The Only Reason for Picking an American Pope was to Fight Trump | Frontpage Mag