THE four golden words that First Lady Melania may have whispered into Donald Trump’s ears to avoid an awkward moment at Pope Francis’ funeral have now been revealed.
Top world leaders set foot in Rome today to join thousands of Catholic mourners at the Pontiff’s carefully orchestrated funeral.
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During the three-hour catholic mass to pay for Francis, the world leaders were encouraged to shake hands with each other and offer a “sign of peace”.
As foreign dignitaries began moving around to shake hands with their counterparts, Trump was seen standing still.
It was at that moment that his wife Melania is said to have “come to his rescue”, whispering four golden words into his ears that reportedly got Trump to move around and shake hands with others.
Forensic lip reader Nicola Hickling told the Daily Mail that Melania may have whispered “you should do it”.
To which Trump is said to have replied: “Oh, alright.”
The president then took out his hand to greet Estonia’s president Alar Karis and Spain’s King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia, before turning to French president Emmanuel Macron.
As the world leaders took to their seats earlier this morning, a number of secrets around the seating plan soon emerged, including why Prince William was so far back.
A ‘MASTER PLAN’
Organisers of the funeral publicly admitted they needed to come up with a “master plan” to manage “big egos” of the world and make the day work.
It was initially believed that the Vatican seating planners would place the royals attending in the front rows before having the presidents and prime ministers in the seats behind them.
Past Vatican funerals have seen the leaders arranged into alphabetical order based on their country, per the French interpretation.
It was widely reported yesterday that US President Donald Trump would be in the third row in a move that he may well have considered a damaging blow to his leader of the free world.
But it was far from accurate, with the seating script being totally flipped on its head.
Trump, Volodymyr Zelensky and Emmanuel Macron all occupied front row seats – but for various different reasons.
In French, the United States is actually written Etas-Unis, which means this places Trump near the top of the list rather than towards the bottom.
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Queen Mary of Denmark was at the start of the row with the King and Queen of Spain close by.
Then came the First Lady Melania Trump and her husband.
The pair had already spoken earlier in the day as Macron, Starmer, Zelensky and Trump all met up prior to everyone taking their seats.
Sitting on the very end of the middle section of seats was Zelensky and his wife Olena.
They appeared to have been given special treatment as they bypassed dozens of nations alphabetically to land a front row spot.
This ended up putting Ukraine – which remains the exact same in French – in between Ireland and India.
Zelensky was even greeted by a round of applause as he took his seat in the square, with the crowds expressing their support for Ukraine.
It also left Kyiv’s leader sitting just 10 seats away from Trump in the end.
HEY THERE, AGAIN!
Zelensky and Trump were pictured meeting for the first time since their historic White House spat.
The quick – and surprising – meeting took place inside the holy St Peter’s Basilica with the pair both pulling up chairs to have an intense one-on-one conversation.
Despite their frosty exchange at the White House, Ukraine’s president Zelensky said it was a “good” 15-minute meeting.
After the funeral, he said: “We discussed a lot one-on-one. Hoping for results on everything we covered. Protecting the lives of our people.
“Full and unconditional ceasefire. Reliable and lasting peace that will prevent another war from breaking out.
“Very symbolic meeting that has the potential to become historic, if we achieve joint results.”
The White House also described it a “very productive discussion”.
Thousands of mourners stayed to line the streets of the Vatican to watch the Pope’s final journey to his resting place.
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Ukraine Presidential Office
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A HUMBLE POPE
Francis was then taken inside Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, a church a short distance away in Rome, for a private burial.
A humble Francis decreed in his will that he would be interred in a simple underground tomb at Santa Maria Maggiore, unlike the previous Popes who had been buried in the crypts beneath St Peter’s Basilica.
Francis will be the first Pope in more than a hundred years to be buried outside of the Vatican walls.
He also said he had arranged for an unnamed benefactor to cover the costs of the burial.
Even the age-old tradition of preparing three coffins of cypress, lead and oak was ditched, as desired by Francis during the years before his death.
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