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Trump says he won’t apologize to pope
President defends social media post that depicts himself as Jesus BY WILL WEISSERT, JOSH BOAK and NICOLE WINFIELD Associated Press
STAFF PHOTOS By SOPHIA GERMER
Tammy Pack gives a tour of her home, called Holly Hedges, in Natchez, Miss. Each spring, Natchez gussies itself up as homeowners, many in costume, open their mansions to tourists.
New documentary puts Natchez in the spotlight Residents question whether attention on city’s past will help or hurt tourism BY JENNA ROSS
Staff writer
NATCHEZ, Miss. — The tour began as many do in this historic river city: with shined silver, a grand chandelier and a bit about the antebellum house’s original owners. But the current owner, Tammy Pack, skipped the hoop skirt. Many of the historic homeowners who partake in Natchez’s annual Spring Pilgrimage don traditional hoop skirts, still, despite criticism that they romanticize a time stained by slavery. Standing before three dozen people — mostly women, mostly baby boomers — in her dining room, Pack explained why she instead picked a slim, silky number. Construction on Pack’s home, long christened Holly Hedges, began in the 1790s. “‘Why not consider dressing to
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump refused to apologize to Pope Leo XIV on Monday after criticizing the pontiff for his opposition to the war in Iran — and he sought to explain away a now-deleted social media post depicting himself as Jesus by saying he had thought the image was of him as ä Trump a doctor. Trump was asked about his com- says U.S. ments toward the U.S.-born head of military has the Catholic Church, as well as the begun a post depicting himself as a healer, in a hastily called question-and-answer blockade of session with reporters at the White Iranian ports. House. PAGE 3A “He was very much against what ä Pope I’m doing with regard to Iran, and you starts Africa cannot have a nuclear Iran. Pope Leo would not be happy with the end re- tour in sult,” Trump said, adding, “I think he’s Algeria and very weak on crime and other things calls for so I’m not” going to apologize. peace. “He went public,” the Republican PAGE 3A president added. “I’m just responding to Pope Leo.” That response followed Leo pushing back on Trump’s broadside against him the previous evening, telling reporters that the Vatican’s appeals for peace and reconciliation are rooted in the Gospel and that he doesn’t
ä See TRUMP, page 7A
Signs throughout Natchez, Miss., advertise Spring Pilgrimage, a century-old tradition widely credited with rescuing the city from destitution. the oldest period of our home?’ ” Pack said, quoting a fellow homeowner. “‘Your house is more ‘Bridgerton’ style, really.’ … “All I heard was I get a new dress without a hoop skirt,” Pack said with a grin. “OK, you sold me on it!” The ladies chuckled. Each spring, Natchez gussies itself up as homeowners, many in costume, open their mansions to tourists hungry for the history —
and, critics say, the myth — of the Old South. This year, the old rite has a new backdrop. A documentary titled “Natchez” interrogates the stories some of those tours tell with their costumes, their Black figurines and their talk of “servants,” rather than enslaved people. “Natchez” tags along as Tracy
ä See NATCHEZ, page 5A
ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO
President Donald Trump speaks outside the Oval Office of the White House on Monday.
Bill to require regular driving test facing bipartisan opposition BY ALYSE PFEIL
State Capitol, but the plan faces bipartisan pushback from lawmakers who said it would be too Louisiana drivers would be re- burdensome. “Think about all the times quired to take a “driver’s knowledge” test every six years under you’ve been driving and you’ve a measure being proposed at the thought to yourself, ‘Man that’s a
Staff writer
WEATHER HIGH 85 LOW 63 PAGE 6B
bad driver,’ ” state Rep. Dixon McMakin, R-Baton Rouge, said while presenting his driver test proposal during a public hearing Monday. “That’s what I think about all the time when I’m on the interstates here in Baton Rouge.”
McMakin said having smarter, better drivers will lead to fewer wrecks and lawsuits and could even help keep car insurance rates down. But lawmakers on the House transportation committee asked
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whether the additional test would actually improve driver skills, and some worried it could even prevent safe drivers who have difficulty with tests from renewing
ä See DRIVING, page 7A
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