Donald Trump offers to help Charlie Gard after parents lose legal battle to keep him on life support

President Trump stepped in on Monday to defend a brain-damaged British baby whose parents lost a legal battle to keep the infant on life support.

Trump tweeted: "If we can help little #CharlieGard, as per our friends in the U.K. and the Pope, we would be delighted to do so."

Charlie was born with a rare genetic condition called mitochondrial depletion syndrome, which causes loss of muscle function and brain damage. After being advised by British doctors to end life support for the terminally ill 10-month-old, parents Connie Yates and Chris Gard raised almost $2 million dollars to transfer their son to the United States to receive experimental treatment.

See photos of Charlie Gard's parents:

But the parents were denied the right of doing so after three separate British courts intervened in the matter, siding with doctors who claimed further prolonging treatment would inflict even more "significant harm" upon the baby. And after the European Court of Human Rights weighed in on the couples' last appeal in June, the parents lost. Doctors who had been caring for Charlie at the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children in London were granted permission to turn off Charlie's life support.

Trump's call for compassion arrives after a similar call was made by Pope Francis last week for Charlie's parents to be allowed to "accompany and treat their child until the end."

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Pope Francis "is following with affection and sadness the case of little Charlie Gard and expresses his closeness to his parents," a Vatican press office statement said. "For this he prays that their wish to accompany and treat their child until the end is not neglected."