美国南卡罗莱纳州星期六即将举行共和党总统初选，共和党总统参选人川普对罗马天主教宗方济各批评其移民政策的回应看来出现缓和。
罗马天主教教宗方济各访问墨西哥后批评川普，说他“不是基督教徒”，因为他提议在美墨边界建造巨大围墙，把试图进入美国的移民拒之门外。
川普星期四在南卡罗莱纳州召开的市民会议上表示，教宗方济各的评论有可能被媒体过分夸大了。他说：“我不喜欢和教宗争执。我不认为这是一场争执。我认为他讲话的语气比媒体最初报道的要缓和得多。我想他只听到了一面之词，而且很可能是墨西哥政府的说法。他没有看到由于非法移民和毒品的大量涌入，边界问题给我们带来的巨大压力。”
川普的一些反对者支持教宗，但是大多数人认为，这是教宗和川普之间的事。
Donald Trump appears to be backing away from his response to Pope Francis’ criticism of Trump’s immigration policy heading into Saturday’s U.S. Republican presidential primary election in (the southeastern state of) South Carolina.
After visiting Mexico, Pope Francis criticized Trump, saying he “is not Christian” because of his proposal to build a massive wall on the southern U.S. border with Mexico to keep out migrants headed to the United States.
During a town hall discussion Thursday night in South Carolina, Trump suggested Pope Francis’ comments may have been overblown.
“I don’t like fighting with the pope, actually. I don’t think this is a fight. I think he said something much softer than was originally reported by the media. I think that he heard one side of the story, which is probably by the Mexican government. He didn’t see the tremendous strain that you know the border is causing us with respect to illegal immigration, with the drugs pouring across the border….”
Some of Trump’s challengers expressed support for the pope.
But others mostly said the matter is between Pope Francis and Trump.