President Trump very nearly became the first American president since World War II to forgo an audience with the pope, The New York Times reports.
Former President George W. Bush's ambassador to the Vatican, James Nicholson, helped set up the meeting between Trump and Pope Francis when he realized Trump's advisers were waiting for an invitation to the Vatican — apparently unaware that it was their responsibility to request the audience.
"They hadn't gotten an invitation, and I said, 'You'll never get an invitation,'" Nicholson said. He added that the historic significance of Trump missing an audience with the pope was "a data point that I was pretty persistent on." Read more dispatches from Trump's visit to the Vatican on Wednesday at The New York Times.
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