Donald Trump will not be sitting in the front row during Pope Francis’s funeral service. He might not like it, but there is nothing he can do about it. The Vatican has decided the seat for him.
US President Donald Trump is expected to be seated at the third tier seating at Pope Francis’s funeral at St. Peter’s Basilica. The Vatican does not have Donald sit at the back because they are mad at him. It is so as per the Vatican protocol.
According to the protocol, the seats are assigned based on the representative’s faith and national name. The order goes – the first tier for Catholic royals, the second tier is for non-catholic royals, followed by world leaders according to the French alphabetical order of their national names.
Catholic royals are seated in the front row. This includes the Royal family of Spain, Belgium and Monaco. They will be followed by non-Catholic royals like the Prince of Wales, who is there on King Charles’s behalf. The British Royal family is famously Protestant.
Some of the world leaders, heads of state and royal attendees for the upcoming funeral of Pope Francis.
Prince William, heir to the British throne, at the top of the list #PrinceofWales https://t.co/gTTHHZm2Gy pic.twitter.com/c01NCOyog9
— mrc 🦇 (@brigantia__) April 23, 2025
Subsequent rows will seat world leaders such as Donald Trump, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Argentine President Javier Milei, and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
This seating arrangement could irritate Donald Trump. We all know how much he tethers appearances to importance. He famously laughed at Former President Joe Biden for being seated in the 14th row during the funeral services of Queen Elizabeth. He claimed he would not have been seated at the back if he was the President.
𝙋𝙤𝙨𝙨𝙞𝙗𝙡𝙚 𝙨𝙚𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙖𝙧𝙧𝙖𝙣𝙜𝙚𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙨 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙛𝙪𝙣𝙚𝙧𝙖𝙡 𝙤𝙛 𝙋𝙤𝙥𝙚 𝙁𝙧𝙖𝙣𝙘𝙞𝙨
🙏🏽 ‘As delegations from about 130 countries, including 50 heads of state and 10 reigning monarchs, make their way to Rome for the funeral, details are emerging of… pic.twitter.com/bj5UELyTWl
— mrc 🦇 (@brigantia__) April 24, 2025
More than 130 delegations are anticipated to attend the funeral. This will include 50 heads of state and 10 monarchs. Security precautions have been taken to handle the influx of dignitaries and mourners. Several anti-drone patrols and crowd control procedures are underway.
Given the scale of the event, it is expected that the presidential briefing will include the seating information for President Donald Trump. This briefing is also important to let Trump know that the Vatican is not being petty. This is not their way of showing their displeasure towards President Donald Trump and his views on immigration and immigrants.
He famously locked heads with Pope Francis when it came to his immigration policies. He even went on to call Pope’s statement disgraceful. The Pope in turn was also not very fond of Donald Trump. On one occasion he even said that the President was not a true Cristian.
However, Donald Trump sitting in the third tier seat has nothing to do with the disagreement and President Trump should not let his ego get the better of him. After all, the whole world will be watching.
