Jerry Brown: Pope Will Convert Trump to ‘Climate Change’ Religion

California Governor Jerry Brown told journalists on Wednesday that he was optimistic that Pope Francis would convert President Donald Trump to the cause of climate change.

Brown was commenting on the president’s visit to the Vatican earlier that day. “It’s very good that the pope met with President Trump and very good that President Trump met with him. … Don’t underestimate the power of the Holy Father. I think that has effect,” Brown said, according to Bay Area public radio station KQED.

In an exchange of gifts Wednesday, the Pope gave Trump a copy of his controversial 2015 encyclical, Laudato Si, which called the world to take up environmental challenges like climate change.

“The pope is talking about climate change, he’s handing [Trump] the encyclical. Don’t underestimate the power of the Holy Father,” Brown said, according to the Sacramento Bee.

Brown is not alone in his predictions. Earlier this month, Breitbart News’ James Delingpole reported that a prominent bishop had also predicted a Trump “conversion” on climate change thanks to the Pope’s intervention.

Delingpole wrote:

When President Trump visits the Vatican next week, he will be transformed by the radiant wisdom of His Holiness, the Pope, into a fully fledged climate change believer.

Or so – somewhat optimistically – the bishop in charge of the Vatican’s Pontifical Academies of Science and Social Sciences has claimed.

Delingpole was skeptical: “Actually, you can bet your bottom dollar that this won’t happen, not least because the Pope’s views on climate change are in many ways profoundly unChristian.”

Governor Brown once trained as a priest before choosing a political career.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He was named one of the “most influential” people in news media in 2016. He is the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.