Pope Leo 'wargamed' Donald Trump's TruthSocial tirade ahead of verbal battle

EXCLUSIVE: Pope Leo 'wargamed' Donald Trump's TruthSocial tirade ahead of verbal battlePope Leo XIV slammed Donald Trump after the US President posted a threat to "wipe out" Iranian civilisation on TruthSocial amid the ongoing conflict in the Middle EastCommentsNewsAnders Anglesey News Reporter09:45, 16 Apr 2026Updated 09:46, 16 Apr 2026View 4 ImagesPope Leo made a rare exception to hit out at Trump's comments about the war in the Middle East (Image: POOL/AFP via Getty Images)Pope Leo XIV likely wargamed how to deal with Donald Trump's social media tirades before his "unprecedented" attack against the pontiff, a papal expert has told The Mirror.‌US President Trump sparked outrage when he branded the pontiff as "weak" following the Pope's criticism of his handling of the war in Iran. Pope Leo had called out Trump's genocidal language ahead of the ceasefire where he threatened to "wipe out" the Iranian civilisation.‌But an expert believes the Vatican will have prepared for explosive scenarios with Trump and have very clear aims of what to do next. They are quite experienced in the Vatican," Dr Miles Pattenden, a historian of the Catholic Church who has commented extensively on Pope Leo, told The Mirror.‌View 4 ImagesPope Leo is considered to have been less outspoken than his predecessor (Image: AP)READ MORE: Trump's tantrum tirade targets in full as he doubles down on Pope LeoREAD MORE: Italian opposition leader rallies behind Meloni over Trump's 'bad mouth'"They probably will have wargamed this kind of scenario because you don't need that much foresight to see Trump might have said something. In general they will have their principals and they will want to stick to them, which is that the Pope is this moral authority and he retains that by not being dragged into specific conflicts, particularly with political leaders and they [Vatican officials] already seem...