Kari Lake, senior adviser to the U.S. Agency for Global Media, told Newsmax on Friday that President Donald Trump’s trip to Rome with wife Melania for the funeral of Pope Francis is more than a political maneuver to discuss a wide range of topics with world leaders.

About 250,000 people paid their respects to Francis, who died Monday at age 88, in the three days his coffin lay in St. Peter’s Basilica, the Vatican said Friday, as public viewing ended, and world leaders began gathering for his funeral Saturday.

“I really think the president is going to pay his respects to Pope Francis,” Lake told “Finnerty,” adding that the Pope “lived a long life, and a lot of Catholics and many [other] people around the globe are mourning. And the president and first lady are going obviously for that purpose.

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