From the New York Times, I'm Natalie Kittrow-F.

This is the Daily.

An unusual disagreement has broken out between the President of the United States and the Pope.

This week, after President Trump lashed out at him,

Pope Leo the 14th openly took on the administration,

setting up the most direct confrontation between a head of state and the Pope in modern history.

Today, my colleague Matoko Rich explains why Trump cares so much about what the Pope thinks,

and why it matters the two of the most powerful Americans

in the world are so deeply at odds.

It's Thursday, April 16th.

Matoko, you have just embarked with the Pope on this tour of several African countries.

You are traveling on the people plane with him surrounded by top Vatican officials

at this really tense moment in which the American president is attacking the first American

Pope.

So just set the scene for me. Where are you? And what is the

feeling right now among the papal entourage? Well, we're on the third day of Pope Leo's first

trip as Pope to Africa. And we just came from Algeria and landed this afternoon in Cameroon.

And I'm currently in the capital of Cameroon in a hotel. You might hear a little background noise because I'm in the press center because that's where the best Wi-Fi is. Got it. The mood here, it's an interesting mix because, of course, the people who are waiting for the Pope's visit are super excited. Like we were driving on the road from the airport to the hotel,

we were just seeing tens of thousands of people lining the road. So for them, this is an incredibly

important pastoral visit. And yet, in the bubble of the people plane, there's this great

awareness of this huge rift that has opened up between the Pope and the President of the United States due to some

very public attacks by the President on social media and then following up by the Vice President

...