Donald Trump leads world’s political elite ahead of Pope Francis’ funeral: US president touches down in Rome overnight with wife Melania – as globe prepares to say farewell to late pontiff 

US president Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump arrived in Rome last night as the world prepares mark Pope Francis’ funeral. 

Trump is one of dozens of world leaders who jetted to Italy ahead of the historic funeral of the pontiff, who died at the age of 88 on Monday. 

Today the world’s elite will be attending the formal funeral of the trailblazing religious figures, after three days where the world was given the chance to pay their respects to the late Catholic leader.  

Yesterday evening, droves of faithfuls lined the streets of the Vatican City as they waited to pay their final respects to Pope Francis. 

The President of Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, Cardinal Vincent Nichols, has predicted the funeral will be a ‘masterpiece’ in stage-managing ‘big egos’.

A Vatican spokesperson has confirmed Francis’s birth country of Argentina, then Italy, will take precedence.

Thereafter, reigning sovereigns will be seated ‘in alphabetical order, but in French language’, followed by heads of state.

Trump is expected to have a ‘third-tier seat’ at Pope Francis‘ funeral mass despite being among the first to confirm that he would be attending the service.

Trump, who is accustomed to being front and centre at world events, is unlikely to have a prominent position in the seating arrangements. 

Trump, however, is not likely to be pleased with the seating arrangements, given that he mocked his predecessor Joe Biden for having to sit in the rear at Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral three years ago.

He said that Biden’s 14th row seat showed there was ‘no respect’ for the US anymore and alleged that if he was president he would have been moved closer to the front of the audience of 2,000 mourners.

Trump did not attend the service bidding farewell to Britain’s longest reigning monarch – as invites were limited to current heads of state at the time. 

Britain’s delegation will include the likes of Sir Keir Starmer, his wife Victoria and Foreign Secretary David Lammy as well as UK ambassador to the Vatican, Chris Trott, and the Labour leaders private secretary for foreign affairs, Alisa Terry.

They are listed between groups from Qatar and Serbia fronted by heads of those respective states.

Prince William as well as Haakon Magnus, the Crown Prince of Norway, are in their own category set aside for crown princes, which is scheduled to follow individuals representing Andorra.

As such Ireland’s delegation, which includes President Michael D Higgins, his wife Sabina Higgins, as well as Taoiseach Micheal Martin, Tanaiste Simon Harris, and their Vatican ambassador Frances Collins, will come ahead of William and the British Government. 

It falls between groups from Indonesia and Iceland, also led by those countries’ heads of state.

US President Donald Trump and his wife First Lady Melania are seated ahead of both the Irish and British delegations, in between Estonia and Finland. 

Cardinal Nichols, who will take part in his first conclave to elect a new pope in the coming weeks, said the funeral organisers are well used to dealing with the sensitivities of such big events.

In an interview with the PA news agency in Rome, he said the funeral will be ‘without a doubt another masterpiece of stage management when you consider those state leaders who have high opinions of their importance’.

He added: ‘In the past, I’ve seen it here over and over again that the combination of Rome and the Holy See, they actually are geniuses at dealing with these big events.

‘I think they’ve been doing it since the emperors ruled Rome – that they know how to deal with big egos.

‘And I think every leader of a nation that comes here on Saturday will go home reasonably content.’

Scaffolding has been erected to provide international media with the best vantage points overlooking St Peter’s Square while there is a strong Italian police presence managing numbers and security.

Following Saturday’s open-air funeral in the square, Francis’s remains will be taken through the streets of Rome in another break with tradition, as his body is brought to a simple underground tomb in the basilica of Saint Mary Major, as per his instructions.

The Vatican said a group of ‘poor and needy’ people will be present on the steps leading to the basilica to pay their last respects before the interment of the coffin, in a nod to Francis’s particular care for the downtrodden.