Louis Prevost, the older brother of Pope Leo XIV, met with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office on Tuesday after the president expressed his desire to ‘give him a hug.’
The White House posted a photo of Prevost and his wife Deborah meeting with the president and Vice President JD Vance in the Oval Office.
Prevost, 73, a retired Navy veteran living in Florida, drew headlines after his brother Robert was elected Pope, prompting scrutiny of their history of social media posts surrounding politics.
While Pope Leo’s old social media posts shared critical articles of Trump and Vance, his brother Louis was decidedly a Trump supporter, with a more colorful denunciation of Democrats like former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Trump responded warmly to the news that Louis Prevost was a fan of his politics, telling the press he would invite him to the White House.
‘I like the Pope. And I like the Pope’s brother. You know one of the Pope’s brothers is a major MAGA fan… He’s got MAGA. He’s got Trump. I look forward to getting him to the White House. I want to shake his hand. I want to give him a big hug,’ Trump told reporters on Tuesday morning as he visited Capitol Hill.
His wish came true just hours later as a grinning Trump posed next to the pope’s brother.
Louis Prevost traveled with the official delegation from the United States to the Vatican to attend the pope’s inaugural mass on Sunday.
The delegation included Vance and his wife Usha, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his wife Jeanette.
Pope Leo shook hands with the delegation after the Mass but gave his big brother a massive hug
Prevost conceded in an interview with Piers Morgan he would now be more disciplined about his posts on social media now that his brother is the Pope.
‘I can tell you, since then, I’ve been very quiet, biting my tongue,’ he said. ‘I don’t want to create waves that don’t need to be there because I’m a MAGA type and I have my beliefs.’
Louis explained his posts were an attempt to ‘stir the pot’ on politics.
‘Sometimes I like to go stir the pot,’ he said. ‘A lot like I think President Trump does. He says things just to stir the pot. Cause it’s fun to like get into some of these debates with people sometimes from the other side.’
Prevost also revealed he served on the same ship in the Navy as former Trump advisor and dynamite MAGA figure Steve Bannon.
‘I know Steve Bannon, I don’t know if he knows me but we served together in the same ship in the Navy, and I know what he was like,’ Prevost said, joking he had been trying to get Bannon to attend some of the reunions with his shipmates.
Despite concerns from some MAGA figures about the new pope, Louis Prevost tried to reassure them about his brother.
‘He’s not left, he’s not right, he looks at the whole scene, takes information from both sides and somehow finds a way to go down the middle and not ruffle too many feathers,’ he said.
Vance and the American delegation met with the pope the following Monday and presented him with a personalized Chicago Bears football jersey and a letter from President Trump to the United States inviting him to visit the United States.
‘If and when he meets with President Trump, I don’t doubt there will be some bumps in the discussion and some heated conversations,’ he conceded in his interview with Morgan.