As cardinals prepared to elect a new pope at the Vatican following the death of Pope Francis in April 2025, a rumor began to spread that U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina, supported President Donald Trump's bid for the papacy.
One post on X slammed Graham for that suggestion, calling him a "parasite" (archived):
The rumor appeared several times on X, as well as on Facebook and Instagram.
It is true that Graham posted such a sentiment on April 29, 2025 (archived):
"I was excited to hear that President Trump is open to the idea of being the next Pope," he said, concluding his post with "Trump 2028" in Roman numerals.
One X user replied, "Ludicrous. For starters, one must be Catholic and unmarried. For the past 600+ years, every clergy who became a Pope was a Cardinal."
Popes are elected by cardinals, who top the Catholic Church's hierarchy. All of them are male and made vows of poverty, chastity and obedience upon their ordinations to the priesthood. The cardinals choose the next pope in what is known as a conclave — a series of secret-ballot votes carried out in seclusion until one of them wins a clear majority of ballots. After each round of voting, the conclave emits smoke: it is black if none has won, and white when a new pope has been elected.
Trump, who is married, is not a Roman Catholic but a Presbyterian. As such, Trump would not be considered a contender to lead the Holy See. But on April 29, 2025, as he was answering reporters' questions, he said, "I'd like to be pope, that would be my No. 1 choice." Graham included a clip of Trump saying these words in his X post.
However, Graham made these comments in jest. A spokesperson for the senator confirmed that they were posted jokingly.
Trump's comments also were intended as a joke. In the same answer, he added, "No, I don't know. I have no preference, I must say we have a cardinal that happens to be out of a place called New York who's very good, so we'll see what happens."
We've also fact-checked a rumor that Trump said, "Frankly, I should be the pope, and in a lot of ways, maybe I already am."