On his last day in Mexico, the head of the world’s Roman Catholic Pope Francis said a Mass on the US border, where he voiced his outrage against immigration policies that force many underground and into the hands of drug gangs and human smugglers.
Trump has also said he would deport millions of illegal migrants if he wins the November US election.
Last week he told Fox Business television that Pope Francis did not understand the Mexican border issues.
“The pope is a very political person. I think he doesn’t understand the problems our country has. I don’t think he understands the danger of the open border that we have with Mexico,” he said.
Asked about being called a “political person”, Francis said: “Thank God he said I was a politician because Aristotle defined the human person as ‘animal politicus’. So at least I am a human person.”
Trump has taken a more than 20-point lead over US Senator Ted Cruz in the Republican race for the presidential nomination, with his campaign seeming to thrive off the endless controversies that he has generated.
Trump calls pope’s criticism of him ‘disgraceful’
Trump on Thursday called remarks by Pope Francis “disgraceful,” after the pontiff argued the Republican White House hopeful could not claim to be a Christian based on his anti-immigrant stance.
“For a religious leader to question a person’s faith is disgraceful,” Trump said in a statement that he read out to a crowd at a campaign stop in South Carolina, which holds its primary vote on Saturday.
“I am proud to be a Christian and as president I will not allow Christianity to be consistently attacked and weakened.”
The comments framed an extraordinary public exchange between a candidate and the leader of the Roman Catholic church in the run up to a US presidential election.
