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President Donald Trump has been accused of breaking the dress code for Pope Francis’s funeral by wearing blue – rather than black – to the Vatican service.
Trump and his wife Melania, who by contrast wore a black dress and black veil, then left the ceremony as soon as it was over, rather than waiting until after the burial.
The dress code for the funeral at St Peter’s Square in Vatican City required men to wear a dark suit with a black tie and a black button on the left lapel.
Women were asked to wear long black dresses, gloves and a veil.
Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky did not wear a formal suit, instead showing up in the black military attire he has worn consistently since the Russian invasion in February 2022.
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Numerous commentators watching the service expressed shock or anger that Trump eschewed official requests, instead wearing a medium-blue suit and matching tie.
One critic on social media said: “Trump did not even have the decency to wear a black tie, and he wore a blue suit. No respect!!”
Another suggested it showed a lack of “class”, while many said the colour was disrespectful.
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However, former President Joe Biden and the UK’s Prince William, representing the King, both wore darker blue suits – but attracted much less criticism.
Biden even asked the deputy speaker of Uganda, Thomas Tayebwa, to be in a selfie with him.
UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and his wife, Victoria, adhered to the dress code, wearing black.
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Trump and Zelensky had a “very productive discussion” before the funeral, the White House said.
The pair sat opposite one another for a face-to-face chat in St Peter’s Basilica – the first time the pair had met in person since their calamitous meeting in February, when the president expelled his Ukrainian counterpart from the White House in what many critics called a coordinated ambush.
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Zelensky appeared to receive a round of applause and cheers as he stepped out of St Peter’s Basilica.
Leading the mass, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re appeared to criticise the president.
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Recalling one of Francis’s harshest criticisms of Trump, the cardinal reminded millions of listeners that the late pope pleaded for people to “build bridges, not walls”.
Trump was elected on repeated promises to build a “beautiful” wall between the U.S. and Mexico to deter immigrants.
