Donald Trump has responded to Pope Francis, who on Thursday said the GOP candidate was not a Christian because of his comments about immigrants.
"If and when the Vatican is attacked by ISIS, which as everyone knows is ISIS's ultimate trophy, I can promise you that the Pope would have only wished and prayed that Donald Trump would have been President because this would not have happened," a statement on his website reads. "ISIS would have been eradicated unlike what is happening now with our all talk, no action politicians."
Pope Francis had criticized Trump's rhetoric earlier today while finishing up his trip through Mexico, saying that, "A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not of building bridges, is not Christian. This is not the gospel."
Trump lashed out at the Pope for questioning his Christian faith.
"For a religious leader to question a person’s faith is disgraceful," he wrote. "I am proud to be a Christian and as President I will not allow Christianity to be consistently attacked and weakened, unlike what is happening now, with our current President. No leader, especially a religious leader, should have the right to question another man’s religion or faith. They are using the Pope as a pawn and they should be ashamed of themselves for doing so, especially when so many lives are involved and when illegal immigration is so rampant."
Francis isn't the only one to call Trump's faith into question. Trump has bungled Bible quotes and verses in the past in efforts to charm religious voters.
Furthermore, characterizing undocumented border crossing as "rampant" flies in the face of reality, as immigration across the southern border is at a low and many of those crossing are fleeing violence, according to the LA Times.
Nevertheless, Trump has made talk about building a bigger wall -- which he implausibly says Mexico will pay for -- along the southern border his go-to crowd pleaser.
Francis stopped short of telling Catholic voters who to choose, but did say, "I would only say that this man is not Christian if he has said things like that.”
Watch Trump read his response, as posted to YouTube, here:
