President Donald Trump and Pope Leo have increasingly come into conflict in recent weeks over the Iran war. Pope Leo called for peace in Iran and warned against the “delusion of omnipotence.” Trump responded by calling the pope “weak on crime and terrible for foreign policy” adding, Will someone please tell Pope Leo that Iran has killed at least 42,000 innocent, completely unarmed, protesters in the last two months.”
Pope Leo responded: “I have no fear neither of the Trump administration nor of speaking out loudly about the message in the Gospel.”
Trump: “I don’t want a Pope who criticizes the President of the United States because I’m doing exactly what I was elected, IN A LANDSLIDE, to do.” adding, “If I wasn’t in the White House, Leo wouldn’t be in the Vatican.” He also posted an AI generated image to Truth Social seemingly portraying himself as Jesus. Vice President JD Vance said Tuesday that Pope Leo should "be careful" when discussing "matters of theology.”
The feud has divided Christians. Many on the left praised Pope Leo for standing up to Trump, while the right had split reactions, with some siding with the Pope, some siding with Trump, and others arguing that the church should not be political and force Catholics to choose between their faith and their vote.
A Wall Street Journal Opinion (Lean Right) columnist wrote, “many Latin Catholics promote visions of solidarity, inclusion, anticolonialism and anticapitalism to increase the church’s appeal across Latin America. This vision does not, to put it mildly, mesh well with Mr. Trump’s MAGA worldview. The administration’s agenda of restoring Washington’s dominance in the Western Hemisphere rubs most Latin Americans the wrong way and intensifies anticolonial and anticapitalist sentiment…The ‘postliberal’ Catholicism that has electrified a new generation of right-leaning American converts, many of them supporters of Vice President JD Vance, emerges from the kind of Catholicism that men like Francis and Leo have fought all their lives.”
New York Times Opinion (Left) columnist Maureen Dowd said, “The soft-spoken, humble Leo, who strives to unify, squared off against the bombastic, solipsistic Trump, who strives to divide. And watching the saintly pope school the amoral president is a blessed sight…It’s hard for the president to give the pope the respect that he deserves because Trump clearly thinks that he’s the Messiah.”
In Newsmax Opinion (Right) Michael Dorstewitz wrote, “Iran historically is an evil regime, even discounting its nuclear weapon ambitions and its state sponsorship of terrorism throughout the Mideast and beyond. More than 36,500 Iranians were killed by Iran's security goons during the Jan. 8-9 crackdown on nationwide protests, making it the deadliest two-day protest massacre in history, according to documents reviewed by Iran International's Editorial Board.”
“But that would require President Trump and Pope Leo to call a truce and start working together to crush an unholy Islamic regime run by ruthless leaders. If they can do it, they would both come out of it as heroes in the free world, and Leo would likely be hailed by people of all faiths — except Islam. It could even make them co-recipients of the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize. But above all, it would give the pontiff an amazing legacy early into his papacy, one that would assure his place in history.”
An MS NOW (Left) opinion piece read, “If Trump and Vance are offended by what Pope Leo said, they would be offended by what Jesus himself said and did.” It added, “Trump has spent his political career demanding loyalty and punishing conscience. He bullies to capitulation anyone he sees as his opponent. This week he has found that the Bishop of Rome does not play by those rules. The Gospel is not weak. And neither, it turns out, is the first American pope, who looked at all the power of the American president and said: I am not afraid. We should not be either.”
