Exclusive group of women don white at Pope's inauguration
The inauguration of the American pope took place over the weekend with Queen Mathilde of Belgium; Queen Letizia of Spain; Maria Teresa, Grand Duchess of Luxembourg and Charlene, Princess of Monaco all donning white for the occasion.
The women have been granted an exception to the traditional requirement that women wear black garments as a result of le privilège du blanc (the privilege of the white). King Felipe VI of Spain and Queen Letizia of Spain arrive ahead of the Inauguration Mass of Pope Leo XIV in St Peter's Square. Pic:Le privilège du blanc allows a Catholic queen or princess to wear white in the company of the Pope, though all non-Catholic royal women must wear black.
Just seven women have the privilege at the moment. Along with the four women who wore white over the weekend, Queen Sofía of Spain; Queen Paola of Belgium and Princess Marina of Savoy are all eligible for the privilege.
Dr Taylor Marshall explained via X that black garments signifies 'humility and the desire to remain unnoticed.' Queen Mathilde of Belgium and King Philippe of Belgium arrive ahead of the Inauguration Mass of Pope Leo XIV in St Peter's Square on May 18, 2025. Pic:The traditional protocol states that men dress simply while women wear long, black dresses that cover the knee and have high collars as well as long sleeves.
Queen Máxima of the Netherlands has not been granted the privilege despite being a Catholic woman. This is because her husband, King Wilem-Alexander, is a Protestant.
The exclusive group don't always have to wear white and similarly the black dress code isn't very strict anymore with Queen Elizabeth previously wearing a bright lilac suit when meeting Pope Francis.
The Vatican is more lenient with the black dress code nowadays, viewing it more of as guideline than a requirement. That said, royal women still traditionally follow the rules, Royal Central confirmed.
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President Trump and his supporters like to say he keeps his political promises, delivers what he said he would. But with the OBBB he broke a pretty big promise: his promise not to touch public health insurance. The Congressional Budget Office shows that 10.9 million will lose their health care coverage from the Medicaid cuts and another 5.1 million will lose their health care coverage due to the Affordable Care Act (better known as Obamacare) cuts - a total of some 16 million people. Two million people will lose access to SNAP, a nutrition programme formerly known as food stamps. It is a way for some 38 million Americans to get help with grocery bills. Around 30 million of that 38 million are also enrolled in the Medicaid programme. The OBBB introduces work requirements to continue in the programme, proponents arguing that single healthy working age people should not get welfare intended for people who cannot work or who have children. 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In a meeting during the last, fraught week to put some backbone into Republican House members, President Trump reportedly told them that whatever way they decided to re-jig the OBBB to get it across the line, there was one thing they were not to do: never touch Medicaid. "But sir," a House member piped up, "the bill touches Medicaid". The other compensation mechanism for the tax cuts is to raise borrowing, adding further to the US national debt by about $3.5 trillion. This will bring the total debt to around $40 trillion in ten years time. These numbers are of course meaningless to normal people (and, arguably, to budget geeks as well). In terms we got used to during the financial crisis of 15 years ago, US government borrowing is now hovering around 100% of GDP, but over the course of the next decade could top 130% of GDP (Ireland's debt ratio last year was 42%: it was 88% for the Euro area). US National debt per capita works out around $106,112. The equivalent dollar figure for Ireland is $47,746 (€40,531). It is a debt trajectory that caused Moody's rating agency to be the last of the big three to fold and remove its Triple-A rating on US debt. The cost of servicing the debt is higher than the sum the US spends on defence (currently - the OBBB plugs in a big spending splurge on defence, and on border security in the form of ICE, the controversial agency carrying out immigration raids). Government borrowing costs are creeping up, and they in turn set the borrowing costs for everyone else, notably through mortgage and business loans. The President argues that the extra growth he predicts from the OBBB changes will take care of the debt ratio, and with it concerns over interest costs, but there is still a big budget deficit in the US - the gap between what the government takes in in taxes and what it spends - a gap that is made up with borrowing. This year, it is going to be around 6.5% in the US. In Ireland there is a budget surplus, in the euro area the budget rules forbid governments to borrow more than 3% of GDP in any given year. The fiscal hawks within his own party are not happy. But with very few exceptions - Ron Paul in the Senate, Tom Massie in the House, both of Kentucky - the hawks voted for the OBBB. Fear of Mr Trump's revenge reportedly overcoming their fear of fiscal instability. OBBB also creates a possible headache for the Irish Government by injecting some fresh uncertainty into the realm of corporation tax, the fiscal heroin to which the Irish Government has developed a dangerous dependency. At the House Ways and Means Committee last month, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent faced a grilling on various aspects of the OBBB, including the bit that legislates the US withdrawal from the OECD rules establishing a global minimum effective rate of corporation tax. The ones that took more than a dozen years of patient diplomacy to negotiate. 15% is the new global standard for big multinationals, and Ireland has raised its corporate tax rate to comply. The Biden Administration brought the US into the agreement. Now the Trump administration is taking it out, as Mr Bessent told the committee on 11 June: "For whatever reason, the previous administration chose to outsource American sovereignty on tax matters, and the Trump administration believes that is unacceptable. Many other countries would seek to pull in revenues from US multinational corporations into their treasury. "Rest assured that the provisions in the One Big Beautiful Bill to combat this are a staking out of our fiscal sovereignty. The US tax system will stand next to what is called Pillar Two, and other countries are welcome to relinquish their fiscal and tax sovereignty to other nations," he added. "The United States will not. So, this bill will allow us to prevent our corporate revenues from being drained into foreign treasuries, and that is in the hundreds of billions of dollars," he said. Exiting pillar two of the OECD is now the law of the land too. Its impact on the Irish exchequer returns is uncertain. The President has also pledged a rebirth of the American manufacturing industry, and the OBBB has measures designed to stimulate investment, such as 100% tax write offs for factories. Will it suck in money from around the world - including money allocated to expansion abroad, including in Ireland? Yesterday saw an American Chamber of Commerce report stating that 60% of member firms were planning to increase hiring in Ireland next year, with 68% already planning further investments over the next five years. Mr Bessent sold the OBBB hard to the Ways and Means Committee last month, tempting members with the prospect of a veritable dam burst of investment if it were made law: "I was with a group of business leaders earlier this week and they were telling me that they are, in fact, holding back on CapEx because they need for the tax bill to pass so that they will have certainty that 100% of the expenses will come back. "I think that we will see a sharp upward break in terms of CapEx as soon as we pass the One Big Beautiful Bill." President Trump's big bill depends on growth. Failure is not an option. Because failure in growth will unmask the pain behind the bill, and indeed will increase the pain. High borrowing when there is no emergency - such as a war or Covid - may leave little room to borrow when it is really needed. But the President is all in on his biggest gamble yet. This is it for the next three and a half years. Everything else is foreign policy - including tariff policy. And next year's election.
