(OSV News) — President Donald Trump offered Pope Leo XIV his “best wishes” and “love” in a short interview with reporters Oct. 14, the day after the pope’s doctors announced that the pope had been diagnosed with lung cancer.
Speaking Oct. 14 to reporters on the tarmac just before boarding Air Force One following a midterm rally in Bullhead City, Arizona, Trump said, “I wanna see Pope Leo get well. I hear the prognosis for that type of a problem — it’s cancer, it’s big stuff anytime you have cancer — but the prognosis seems to be good. I’ve watched, and we just wanna wish him our love and our best wishes.”
The president also highlighted his friendship with Pope Leo’s older brother, Louis Prevost, who met with Trump and Vice President JD Vance in the White House in May 2025 shortly after Pope Leo’s inauguration Mass.
“His brother’s a friend of mine,” Trump commented. “He’s a fantastic guy — and his wife. You know, they’re big Trump supporters. They have MAGA all over their house.”
He added, “I can say that his brother loves him a lot, loves the pope a lot. That’s good, that’s good enough for me.”
Shortly after the announcement of Pope Leo’s cancer diagnosis, Louis Prevost’s wife, Deborah, revealed to CBS News that her husband is being treated for multiple myeloma. She did not say what stage his cancer is in but said he’s currently in a clinical trial for it at a local hospital.
Deborah Prevost told CBS that her husband was “first diagnosed in 2017 but was able to maintain it at a ‘very low level’ after undergoing treatment in 2019 that included stem cell treatment and a clinical trial.” She said he “fell out of remission” three months ago.
She said that Louis had spoken with his brother prior to his surgery. “He called to let us know what would be happening,” she said. “We keep praying, keeping spirits up for both of them.”
In the first medical update provided by the Vatican since the late-night revelation of the pope’s lung cancer diagnosis, the pope’s doctors said Oct. 14 that the pope’s “recovery is proceeding as expected” and the pope has begun walking around his hospital room.
According to Vatican News, post-operation tests will be conducted on the removed tissue in the coming days.
