Melania saves Donald Trump from diplomatic faux-pas with four stern words

This is the moment from an awkward faux-pas during Pope Francis' funeral. The US President and the First Lady were front and centre during the service as they were given to prime positions among leaders, monarchs and dignitaries.

The VIPs were among the 250,000 mourners who had gathered in St Peter's Square to say their goodbyes and pay respects to the pontiff who had died on Easter Monday.

Melania, who is a practising Catholic, attended the service on her 55th birthday. At one point during the three-hour mass, the congregation were invited to 'offer each other a sign of peace' by shaking hands with one another.

READ MORE:

READ MORE:

At this point,- was seen watching events unfold but without participating. The cameras then caught Melania coming to his aid.

Lip reader Nicola Hickling told MailOnline that Melania instructed her husband to start shaking hands before grudgingly offered a hand to the French president Emmanuel Macron.

'You should do it,' Melania whispered in Trump's ear. The First Lady then repeated herself until her husband took up her instruction.

It wasn't the first time the duo were caught on camera speaking to each other during the service. Trump was also seen uttering to his wife about who he was going to speak to at the event.

During the two-hour service in St Peter's Square, Trump was seen whispering to Melania in a quiet moment. A lip-reading expert has now worked out what the world leader was saying.

Professional Nicola Hickling revealed that Mr Trump said: "I’ll go over and speak to him." To which Melania replied with a swift 'side eye' but did not verbally acknowledge her husband at all during the service.

Trump was seen in close conversation and shaking the hands of various leaders ahead of the historic religions ceremony.
However, it was scenes earlier in the day of Mr Trump holding an impromptu head to head with Ukrainian President minutes before the funeral that caught viewers' attention.

Photographs released by the Ukrainian presidency showed the - without aides - in the ornate setting of St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican. The pair pulled up two chairs and sat down just metres from where the 's body was resting until the funeral began at 10am local time (9am BST) today.

A spokesman for Zelensky said the meeting lasted for about 15 minutes and said the two would continue talks in Rome at a later date. “The teams are working on organising that,” a spokesperson confirmed.

Speaking after the funeral, Zelensky said it had been a "very symbolic meeting" had the "potential to become historic, if we achieve joint results". He posted to X: "Hoping for results on everything we covered. Protecting lives of our people. Full and unconditional ceasefire. Reliable and lasting peace that will prevent another war from breaking out."