Lessons for Trump from the Pope’s Election
Leadership comes from exercising authority, not from dominating power
In their coverage of the recent Papal election process, which resulted in the election of an American, several media outlets have noted that the late Cardinal Robert George, a highly respected Archbishop of Chicago, opined that the first American would only be elected Pope following the political decline of the United States. One commentator, Bishop Robert Barron, a protege of Cardinal George and founder of the Word on Fire ministry, said that he was stunned that an American had been elected, implying that his mentor’s pre-condition for the election of an American as Supreme Pontiff had not been met. The late Cardinal George was correct, however, for the United States has declined on the world stage from a position of dominance to one of pre-eminence, that is, its relative power has declined.
Whether this relative decline in U.S. power will also see a concomitant reduction in U.S. authority remains to be seen; much depends on how the current Chief Executive Officer of the United States, Donald Trump, exercises his leadership of the world’s pre-eminent nation-state. The election of Pope Leo XIV has lessons for Mr. Trump that he would be wise to note.
President Trump exhibits a complete zero sum understanding of power, largely based on the ability of one party in a negotiation to impose its will on another party. His allusions to ‘holding a weak hand’ or ‘holding cards’ reflect a poker player’s mentality. For him, apparently, each negotiation is a competition involving one or more players in which one’s winnings results only from others’ losings. Though he occasionally pays lip-service to win-win scenarios, his language indicates a desire to be the biggest winner, always gaining at the expense of others. His regular language of victimhood, “they’re ripping us off”, “they’ve been taking advantage of us for years” reveals that he does not subscribe to the notion of a deal in which everyone benefits from the rising tide, but rather those with the most powerful yacht do well while others’ skiffs are swamped, or they will be fortunate to be rescued for service on his big, beautiful boat.
In particular, this attitude manifests itself in a curious mix of disdain for the European Union and fear that their economic success might produce a peer or near-peer rival. This may appear fanciful given the parlous state of EU member states’ economies and defense capabilities, but Trump has said several times that the EU was created to weaken the U.S. Such an interpretation of why the EU was formed reflects Trump’s misreading of history. It also reflects his fear that the EU’s substantial potential could be realized if it were to re-embrace free-market capitalism and achieve pan-EU cohesion (neither is likely anytime soon) to reach peer status with the U.S. Thus, he mis-reads history backwards - convincing himself that as the EU becomes an economic power, it can only have been designed to do so to rival the U.S. dominance. A historian he’s not, but a tactician he is.
Though his familiarity with Biblical teachings cannot be called profound, he does know that “a house divided against itself” cannot stand. So, what better than to stir up ethnic rivalries in Europe by lauding irredentists in Hungary, Russia, and other countries to create internal distractions or worse. It appears that he actually does believe that Putin was justified in launching a barbarous war against Ukraine, or that Hungary has legitimate claims to “protect” Magyar-speakers in neighboring states. For regardless of all his protests about hating war and his lamentations about all those fine young soldiers dying, Trump approaches foreign relations as a zero-sum competition for power. But in his efforts to arrest the relative decline in U.S. power by undermining the relative rise of the EU, he undermines his nation’s moral and political authority on which its power was founded, and remains dependent.
Which brings us to Pope Leo XIV’s election as confirmation that the U.S. is in relative decline on the world stage. For Cardinal George’s observation was as prophetic as it was profound. While the U.S. bestrode the world like a classical Colossus soon after the implosion of the Soviet Union, it lost sight of the depth and breadth of it real victory - defending, sustaining and spreading Western values. Yet, ironically, those U.S. achievements served to reduce its relative economic and political dominance while enhancing its authority based on its defense of freedom and justice. This is not unlike the Vatican’s loss of political power that ushered in an era of increased moral authority for the most widespread and populace institution in the world.
Yes, the U.S. remains the world’s largest economy, commanding about 25% of the world’s GDP, but it is also the largest debtor, increasingly dependent on other nations to prop up its profligate spending. But 25% of the world’s GDP in 2025 is a massive come down in relative terms from decades before, and in the near future, that percentage will slowly decline as other nations and regional groupings increase their relative share of the world’s wealth. And, it is unstoppable, for if the U.S. puts brakes on the growth of others’ wealth, it would do the same to its own. We may not yet have a truly globalized economy, but we do have a truly international and interdependent world economy.
Which brings us to exercising authority instead of power. Pope Leo XIV has very little power - he commands no armies, he has no naval vessels, he travels in a commercial airliner loaned, not given, to him when he has need, etc. The Holy See’s financial clout is minimal, and its diplomatic influence cannot rely on the threat of coercive measures. And yet, its authority is such that hundreds of millions, possibly over a billion, persons worldwide tuned-in to await the outcome of the election of a new Pope, the Supreme Pontiff. By acknowledging that it does not seek to dominate, that is to ‘lord it over others”, the Catholic Church gains moral authority that delivers to it the means to influence economic, social, and political developments throughout the world.
President Trump and the United States would benefit from likewise shifting focus from exercising power over others, to include threats of coercive measures, to enhancing U.S. social, cultural, and political authority that underpins our status as the leading world power. Whether Mr. Trump will acknowledge the inevitability of the relative decline in U.S. power and seek pre-eminence in cooperation with others remains to be seen. Reflecting on why so many persons around the world were attentive to the election of the sovereign of a 109 acre mini-state would serve him well as the U.S. faces the inevitable loss of coercive power which will require the U.S. to rely on cooperative coalitions of nations with shared values if it hopes to retain its status as the world’s pre-eminent power.