In the early morning of April 21, 2025, Pope Francis died at age 88. That same day, users across multiple social media platforms, including Instagram (archived), Facebook (archived), Reddit (archived) and X (archived), claimed U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene had posted: "Today there were major shifts in global leaderships. Evil is being defeated by the hand of God."
(X user @mtgreenee)
However, she did not specifically mention the pope's death in her post. Greene's office provided more context via email, writing: "Klaus Schwab stepped down as the head of WEF. Lots of things are happening in the world." Klaus Schwab is the founder and former chair of the World Economic Forum (WEF). He stepped down from the role with immediate effect on April 21. The following day, numerous reputable news media outlets reported that the WEF had launched an investigation into Schwab following a whistleblower letter alleging financial misconduct by the former chairman.
Other Republicans, including U.S. President Donald Trump (archived) and Vice President JD Vance (archived) — who had met with Francis a day earlier — expressed their condolences following the pope's death.
Greene has been a longtime critic of the Catholic Church. In 2022, she wrote publicly (archived): "I was born into the church, raised in it and I was married in the Church. With great sorrow, and unwavering faith in Jesus Christ, I stopped attending Catholic Mass when I became a mother, because I realized that I could not trust the Church leadership to protect my children from pedophiles, and that they harbored monsters even in their own ranks."
In sum, Greene's post in which she wrote, "Today there were major shifts in global leaderships. Evil is being defeated by the hand of God" is authentic, and she posted it not long after Pope Francis died. However, she did not specifically mention the pope's death in the post.