First lady Melania Trump may have the key task of keeping the peace between Presidents Donald Trump and Joe Biden at Pope Francis’ funeral in Rome on Saturday.
Despite a chummy meeting at the White House in November after Trump beat Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump has continued to bash Biden throughout the first three months of his second term.
That would make things awkward for Melania, who was supposed to celebrate her 55th birthday quietly in New York with the president and Barron but will instead have to run interference between her husband and some of his biggest political enemies.
The Daily Mail confirmed that former President Biden and former first lady Jill Biden will attend. On top of that, Trump nemesis former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is also confirmed to be attending.
Relations between Pelosi and the Bidens are also frosty after she had a role in forcing the former president to step down in favor of Harris during the election campaign.
Trump, who is accustomed to being front and center at world events, is also unlikely to have a prominent position in the seating arrangements when he arrives at St. Peter’s Basilica. It has been described as a ‘third-tier seat.’
Many of the 50 heads of state and 10 reigning monarchs will be in attendance, but tradition suggests that precedence for front row seating will be given to Catholic royalty.
Foreign dignitaries will likely be sat in a large block on one side of the coffin, across from the cardinals, patriarchs, bishops and archbishops.
They’ll be seated in alphabetical order, so while the Trumps, the Bidens and Pelosi will be in the same room, they won’t be next to each other.
As he left for Rome Friday, Trump again blamed Biden for the war in Ukraine.
‘It should have been fixed by Biden, but he couldn’t do it,’ Trump huffed, calling the peace talks ‘very fragile.’
‘This is Biden’s war,’ Trump said of the conflict during meetings with Norway’s prime minister the day before.
Biden popped up in public last week, giving his first major address since leaving office in January.
In the speech, delivered to Advocates, Counselors and Representatives for the Disabled conference in Chicago, Biden went after Trump and DOGE leader Elon Musk – but refused to call the two men out by name.
Biden blasted Trump and Musk for creating ‘needless pain and sleepless nights’ and destabilizing Social Security.
‘Who in the hell do they think they are?’ the 82-year-old Biden roared.
Adding another layer of awkwardness to Pope Francis’ funeral, Pelosi acknowledged in February that she still hadn’t made peace with the Bidens after helping to push the Democratic president out of the 2024 race.
During an interview with NBC’s Andrea Mitchell, Mitchell asked California Democrat if there was a chance to ‘patch that up.’
‘Well, I certainly hope so,’ Pelosi replied.
Mitchell then asked if Pelosi had been in touch with the former president.
‘No I haven’t,’ the California Democrat said.
In an interview with The Washington Post before leaving the White House, Dr. Biden said of Pelosi: ‘We were friends for 50 years.’
‘It was disappointing,’ the first lady said.
At that, Pelosi’s documentary filmmaker daughter Alexandra clapped back.
‘If I was Lady McBiden, I’d put on my big girl pants, play the long game and think about my husband’s legacy,’ Alexandra told Politico in an interview published a day before the Bidens left office.