Behind the Feud Behind Trump and Leo XIV

"Will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest?" King Henry II's supposed complaint sent four knights to murder Thomas Becket, the archbishop of Canterbury. Donald Trump may feel much the same way. The first American-born pope ever, and only the second native Anglophone pontiff since Nicholas Breakspear became Adrian IV in 1154, may be the most formidable adversary Mr. Trump has yet encountered. Combining the diplomatic skills of a Prince of the Church with Chicago's finest street-fighting political instincts, Leo XIV clearly won his first verbal battle with the Man from Queens. Despite a fragile cease-fire, Vatican-White House relations are as icy as a mountain range in Greenland. They are likely to remain so.