Trump: Pope Francis ‘a terrific person’

by Jesse Byrnes - 02/19/16 2:19 PM ET

TONIGHT 7pET: @realDonaldTrump responds to the Vatican saying @Pontifex's remark wasn't a "personal attack" @FoxNews https://t.co/uCaNLm6wuH

— Greta Van Susteren (@greta) February 19, 2016

Donald Trump is praising Pope Francis a day after he blasted the pontiff for seemingly questioning his faith and criticizing his proposal to build a wall on the nation’s southern border.

“I think he’s a terrific person, frankly,” Trump said of Francis during an interview with Fox News’s Greta Van Susteren slated to air Friday night.

{mosads}”But to me it’s illegal immigration,” he continued. “I don’t think the pope really understood, in terms of the crime problem and the problems of illegal immigration.”

A Vatican official on Friday sought to clarify the pontiff’s widely reported criticism Thursday of Trump’s plan to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, arguing it wasn’t a “personal attack.”

Asked about Trump, Francis told reporters aboard his airplane on Thursday that “a person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not of building bridges, is not Christian.”

Trump, who has identified as a Presbyterian, slammed the comment as “disgraceful” before tempering his remarks at a CNN town hall later in the day, saying the pontiff has “a lot of personality.”

An official for Francis said Friday that the pope “has clearly said he didn’t want to get involved in the electoral campaign” and made his comments about what he was told about the candidate.

The real estate mogul suggested afterward that he appreciated the Vatican walking back the remarks, telling Fox News, “The fact that he said that, I’m very honored by it.”

Trump is hoping to fend off GOP rivals Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio for support among conservative voters in South Carolina on the eve of the state’s primary Saturday.

Tags 2016 GOP primary 2016 South Carolina primary Donald Trump Illegal immigration Marco Rubio Pope Francis Ted Cruz