Pope Francis recently said that "fake news" was the root cause of the assassination attempts against President-elect Donald Trump last year.
The Catholic News Agency reported on the pontiff's annual "state of the world" address, which he gave to members of the diplomatic corps accredited to the Holy See on Thursday. In it, Francis pointed to "fake news" as the root of the division and distrust in society that culminated in Trump almost being killed on two separate occasions in 2024.
"This phenomenon generates false images of reality, a climate of suspicion that foments hate, undermines people's sense of security, and compromises civil coexistence and the stability of entire nations. Tragic examples of this are the attacks on the chairman of the government of the Slovak Republic and the president-elect of the United States of America," he said.
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Trump narrowly avoided being killed at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania last July, when would-be assassin Thomas Crooks fired at him with an AR-15 rifle. Crooks' round missed Trump's skull by less than an inch, though it hit him in the ear. Other rounds entered the crowd behind the then-GOP candidate, wounding two and killing rallygoer Corey Comperatore.
Trump avoided a second assassination attempt just two months later in Florida, as U.S. Secret Service scared off suspect Ryan Routh before he could take a shot at Trump, who was golfing at his course in Palm Beach County. Authorities caught up with and arrested the would-be assassin after he ditched his AK-47 and took off in a vehicle.
As the Pope reminded his audience, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico was critically wounded when he was shot by a would-be assassin in May while greeting some of his supporters in his country. Local authorities arrested the suspect.
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During the address, Francis said that these assassination attempts are the result of societies being further polarized by misinformation and media bias.
"We see increasingly polarized societies marked by a general sense of fear and distrust of others and of the future, which is aggravated by the continuous creation and spread of 'fake news,'" Francis declared, using the term that Trump made popular at the start of his political career.
The Pope added that fake news "not only distorts facts but also perceptions."
Following the attempts on his life, Trump blamed false rhetoric pushed by the left as what inspired the shootings against him.
Speaking about the second would-be assassin, Trump told Fox News Digital last September, "He believed the rhetoric of Biden and Harris, and he acted on it. Their rhetoric is causing me to be shot at, when I am the one who is going to save the country, and they are the ones that are destroying the country - both from the inside and out."
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In his speech, Francis - who declared 2025 to be a special "Jubilee" year with the central theme of hope - called for mankind to mend the divisions in society that have led to these assassination attempts.
"My prayerful hope for this new year is that the jubilee may represent for everyone, Christians and non-Christians alike, an opportunity also to rethink the relationships that bind us to one another, as human beings and political communities," he expressed.
