US President, Donald Trump will not get a front-row seat at Pope Francis' funeral, according to the Vatican protocol.

Top world leaders will set foot in Rome on Saturday to join tens of thousands of Catholic mourners at the Pontiff's carefully orchestrated funeral.

Despite being one of the first heads of state to confirm his attendance at the historic memorial, Trump is expected to be moved to the third-tire row of dignitaries.

Foreign dignitaries will be seated in a block to one side of Francis' coffin while archbishops, bishops, patriarchs, and cardinals will be seated opposite them. However, Vatican protocol suggests that when Trump arrives at St Peter’s Basilica on Saturday morning he might not even be placed in the second row.

Delegations from around 130 countries, including 50 heads of state and 10 reigning monarchs are making their way to Rome for the Pope's funeral following his death on Monday.

"However, a good time for our president to get to know the leaders of certain Third World countries." Trump claimed the situation would have been different if he were president, adding: “If I were president, they wouldn’t have sat me back there – and our Country would be much different than it is right now.:"

He concluded: “In real estate, like in politics and in life, location is everything.” The Pope's funeral will mark the biggest gathering of world leaders since Trump's January inauguration.

The seating arrangements could create diplomatic awkwardness, Catherine Pepinster, a former editor of The Tablet and a commentator on the Catholic Church told The Telegraph.

She explained: “One of the interesting aspects of a ceremony such as this is that the Holy See has diplomatic relations with countries such as Russia and Iran, which may mean that world leaders who would not usually meet, would encounter one another in Rome, either the night before the funeral or at the actual ceremony."