--- title: Trump: Pope Francis Makes Food Joke With Melania trump description: The Pope had a fun question about food when he met President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump to the Vatican. canonical: https://time.com/4792209/trump-pope-meeting-melania-food/ author: Ashley Hoffman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-05-24T14:50:48.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:43:54.683Z og:title: The Pope Had to Ask Melania Trump About This Traditional Dish og:description: In one of the lighter moments, the Pope had a culinary question for Melania og:url: https://time.com/4792209/trump-pope-meeting-melania-food/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt801386d92f71ad95/6988ceb48e0601e65046a812/gettyimages-687648086.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5320 og:image:height: 2993 og:image:alt: Pope Francis Meets USA President Donald Trump og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Pope Had to Ask Melania Trump About This Traditional Dish twitter:description: In one of the lighter moments, the Pope had a culinary question for Melania twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt801386d92f71ad95/6988ceb48e0601e65046a812/gettyimages-687648086.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Pope Francis and Melania Trump Had a Lighthearted Exchange About Slovenian Food > Sponsored content. 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Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=60ae337c-7452-4b5c-b43b-d37c6aadeb99&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1) by [Ashley Hoffman](https://time.com/author/ashley-hoffman/) ## Ashley Hoffman May 24, 2017 2:50 PM UTC  VATICAN CITY, VATICAN - MAY 24: Pope Francis meets United States President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump at the Apostolic Palace on May 24, 2017 in Vatican City, Vatican. The President Trump will return on Italy on Friday attending the Group of 7 Summit in Sicily. (Photo by Vatican Pool/Getty Images) VATICAN CITY, VATICAN - MAY 24: Pope Francis meets United States President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump at the Apostolic Palace on May 24, 2017 in Vatican City, Vatican. The President Trump will return on Italy on Friday attending the Group of 7 Summit in Sicily. (Photo by Vatican Pool/Getty Images) Vatican Pool—Getty Images by [Ashley Hoffman](https://time.com/author/ashley-hoffman/) ## Ashley Hoffman May 24, 2017 2:50 PM UTC When [Pope Francis met First Lady Melania Trump](http://ti.me/2pwddWQ), he had one culinary question about the President for her. Pope Francis welcomed President Donald Trump along with First Lady Melania to the Vatican on Wednesday for the first meeting between the [two leaders](http://ti.me/2rJ8E9g). When he greeted FLOTUS, through a translator he asked cordially in Italian, “what are you feeding him, potica?” a well-known dessert from the First Lady’s native Slovenia. The translator offered this remix: “what do you give him to eat?” The First Lady seemed to ask either “potica” or “pizza” before smiling and confirming “yes” with a laugh. Melania Trump’s staff confirmed later to [AFP](https://www.afp.com/en/news/15/pope-risks-joke-about-trumps-size) that she appreciated the [papal figure’s](http://time.com/4521380/pop-dog-photobomb/) special made joke for the meeting. A press spokesperson also said that potica is a [favorite of the Pope](http://cyprusdaily.net/2017/05/24/us-president-trump-hails-vatican-meeting-with-pope-francis-as-an-honour/) who loves to mention it whenever he meets anyone from Slovenia. Pronounced “potteezza,” [the time-honored Slovenian holiday dish](https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/2693-potica) is a pastry bread made by rolling dough until it’s paper thin, and filling it with a spread made from ingredients like ground walnuts, honey and cream. The leaders have long had a [ tense relationship](http://ti.me/2rJ8E9g), but according to a [Vatican statement](http://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/bollettino/pubblico/2017/05/24/170524a.html) the leaders spoke about education, health care, assistance for immigrants, as well as promoting world peace “through political negotiation and interreligious dialogue.” In his [Twitter remarks](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/867354520526872576), Trump said that their audience was “fantastic,” and “an honor.” He also changed his Twitter banner to a photograph of the meeting. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4792209/trump-pope-meeting-melania-food/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4792209/trump-pope-meeting-melania-food/"},"headline":"Pope Francis and Melania Trump Had a Lighthearted Exchange About Slovenian Food","datePublished":"2017-05-24T14:50:48.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:43:54.683Z","description":"The Pope had a fun question about food when he met President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump to the Vatican.","url":"https://time.com/4792209/trump-pope-meeting-melania-food/","keywords":["Newsfeed","politics","Religion","Vatican","pope","Donald Trump","Melania Trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt801386d92f71ad95/6988ceb48e0601e65046a812/gettyimages-687648086.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Ashley Hoffman","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/ashley-hoffman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt801386d92f71ad95/6988ceb48e0601e65046a812/gettyimages-687648086.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Pope Francis Meets USA President Donald Trump","caption":"Pope Francis Meets USA President Donald Trump","creditText":"Vatican Pool—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4792209/trump-pope-meeting-melania-food/","name":"Pope Francis and Melania Trump Had a Lighthearted Exchange About Slovenian Food"}}]}] ```