doing within accepted norms over the last two administrations, even the last three administrations hasn t worked. we need someone to think and say look, we are going to do things we haven t done before. and the will to use their considerable american leverage. we haven t done that. arthel: president trump is that if you don t do it, we ll do it alone. gordon chang, have to leave it there. thank you for analysis. i was enjoy speaking with you. treat into throwing out the cards and flowers for mom. coming up, we will have opposed special prayer for moms around the world. the pontiff s mother day message from the vatican. president transporter while promise they say is inching closer to becoming reality. coming up, we ll tell you that the next big phase of the president amateur project. the details that they say they have been.
down today at andrews air base. president obama was there to greet him in person along with the first lady and their daughters sasha and malia obama also their grandmother, the first lady s mother was there in person. the whole family was there along with the honor guard and lots of vatican officials and lots of american officials and a few very excited, a few hundred very excited people who got special tickets to be there from what effectively is the vatican s embassy in washington where the pope will be spending the night tonight. the few hundred people at andrews were shouting for him, francisco, francisco. they shouted for him several different chants in spanish welcoming him to the united states. this pope s first language, of course, is spanish. but then the crowd at andrews today, this is very sober occasion, this very statesman-like occasion. then there s this crowd. at one point, the crowd got to the point of the american football style chants.
welcomed to the white house. president george w. bush traveled to the vatican more often than any president has. he went four times in all during his presidency. when pope benedict, this pope s predecessor, when he visited washington, president george w. bush famously gave him a ginormous four-tiered lemon birthday cake. happy papal birthday. president obama met pope francis for the first time last year at the vats can. today president obama and his family greeted pope francis on arrival at andrews can along with vice president biden and jill biden and their grandchildren. the vice president is known to be devoutly catholic, vocal about his faith throughout his time in public life. tonight is this pope s first ever night in the united states. the first thing on his agenda tomorrow morning is to meet with the president obama at the white house. along with 15,000 other well-wishers. joining us now is washington post columnist e.j. dionne. he covered the vatican for years
xvtx xv. december 6, 1959 president eisenhower went to the vatican to visit pope john xxiii. when john f. kennedy, so far the only catholic president our country has had, when he was planning on visiting the vatican, an the pope at the time was so excited to meet with him that he sent him this private letter which presidential historian michael beschloss tweeted today. among other things the letter praises the many admirable qualities that have made the united states a leading member of the family of nations. the next president, of course, was lbj. and when lyndon b. johnson visited pope paul vi, president johns was thoughtful enough to bring the pope a gift and the gift that he brought the pope was a bust of himself. not a bust of the pope.
our president. today, at andrews air base, it was not the first time that this pope and president obama have met in person. president obama was at the vatican last march. he met privately with pope francis at the vatican last year. it s interesting, there s always an exchange of gifts at meetings like that. famously at that visit to the cat can, what president obama brought pope francis as a gift was a seed chest. was a handmade botch full of seeds from the white house garden. seeds for fruits and vegetables sbug and some people in our country criticizes president obama for that gift and yes, as gifts go if this is how you judge them, that is a fairly cheap gift. but for this pope, i think that was probably the right tone. and for all the issues on which this pope and this president disagree, for all the pope s religious conservatism on issues like abortion for example and