Trump bolted from pope's funeral so he could get back to his New Jersey golf club: report

After attending the Rome funeral for Pope Francis on Saturday, Donald Trump and his wife Melania posed for a few pictures with other foreign dignitaries then headed to Air Force One immediately because the president wanted to get back to New Jersey.

According to a report from the New York Times, the president and the first lady were only in Rome for 14 hours, with the Times' David Sanger and Motoko Rich writing it was, "... a startlingly fast turnaround for the first overseas trip of a new president, and left no time for discussion of his tariffs on the European Union, his turn toward normalizing relations with Russia or his insistence that Europeans must take far larger responsibility for their own defense."

The report notes that the swift departure was the result of Trump telling his aides, "he wanted to make it back to his [Bedminster] golf resort in New Jersey before the end of the day."

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The report goes on to note Trump's brief but highly publicized meeting with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, adding that an aide representing the president of Ukraine attempted to delay Trump's "speedy departure" for more talks but it did not happen due to "very tight schedules of the presidents.”

According to the Independent, upon their return to the U.S., Trump and his wife "parted ways" after stepping off Air Force One despite the fact that it was the first lady's 55th birthday.

You can read more from the Times here.