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President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he hoped that Pope Leo, who has been diagnosed with lung cancer, would "get better fast."
"I want to see Pope Leo get well," Trump told reporters. "I just want to wish him well, get better fast."
Pope Leo, 71, was diagnosed with lung cancer after surgeons removed a part of his right lung on Tuesday, according to the Vatican.
His recovery from surgery is progressing as expected and he has begun walking in his hospital room and eating normally, the Vatican said on Wednesday.
Leo and Trump have been critical of each other in the past.
Leo, the first US pope, has called for a "deep reflection" in the US about how migrants are treated under Trump, cast the Trump administration as being "extremely disrespectful" to immigrants and criticized what he called their "inhuman treatment."
On the US foreign policy front, the Vatican has declined to join Trump's "Board of Peace" initiative for Gaza and the pope has criticized the US-Israeli war on Iran.
Trump called Leo "terrible for Foreign Policy" and "WEAK on Crime" in an online post earlier this year.
Late last month, Leo said that concerns about AI having the potential to destroy the world should be taken seriously, in an apparent rebuke of Trump, who has said that fears the technology poses a threat to humanity are a "hoax." — Reuters