Why is Trump picking a fight with the pope?
While the world’s attention has been focused on the US-Israel war on Iran, President Donald Trump has launched a scathing verbal attack on Pope Leo XIV.
Trump also suggested that Leo was only elected to lead the Catholic Church last year “because he was an American, and they thought that would be the best way to deal with President Donald J. Trump”.
He also posted an AI-generated image depicting himself as Jesus, with the US flag and the Statue of Liberty in the background. The post was later removed.
However, Trump has not always been critical of Leo, who is the first American pope. At the time of his election, he had called it a “great honour for our country”. So why is the US president now picking a fight with the pontiff?
Why was Trump so incensed?
On Saturday, the global leader of Catholics had made a plea for peace amid the war in the Middle East as talks between the US and Iran were underway in Islamabad.
The 70-year-old had publicly implored leaders on Saturday to end the violence, telling worshippers at St Peter’s Basilica: “Enough of the idolatry of self and money! Enough of the display of power! Enough of war!”
The Associated Press reported that although the Pope did not mention the US or Trump by name, his tone and message appeared directed at Trump and US officials, who have “boasted of US military superiority and justified the war in religious terms”.
Subsequently, Trump told reporters at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, “I’m not a big fan of Pope Leo. He’s a very liberal person, and he’s a man that doesn’t believe in stopping crime.”
He later doubled down on his comments to reporters with a post on Truth Social, saying: “I don’t want a Pope who thinks it’s OK for Iran to have a Nuclear Weapon”.
“Pope Leo is WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy,” he said.
Past criticisms
The pope has become increasingly vocal about the US and Israel’s war on Iran, last week condemning Trump’s rhetoric and threats against the people of the Islamic republic as “truly unacceptable”.
The remarks had come after Trump said “a whole civilisation will die tonight” in a social media post that shocked world leaders.
In his Easter message, he had also called on world leaders to end the conflicts raging across the world and abandon any schemes for power, conquest or domination. He had even made an unusual direct appeal to Trump and urging him to find an off-ramp.
In addition to the war on Iran, Pope Leo has also questioned whether the Trump administration’s hardline immigration policies were in line with the Church’s pro-life teachings, and called for a “deep reflection” about the way migrants are being treated in the US.
“Someone who says, ‘I am against abortion but I am in agreement with the inhuman treatment of immigrants in the United States’, I don’t know if that’s pro-life,” the pontiff said in September.
CNBC reported that he also endorsed a November message from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, who said they were “disturbed when we see among our people a climate of fear and anxiety around questions of profiling and immigration enforcement”.
According to the Associated Press, while it’s not unusual for popes and presidents to be at cross purposes, it’s exceedingly rare for the pope to directly criticise a US leader — and Trump’s “stinging response is equally uncommon, if not more so”.
It is worth mentioning that Trump had also called Leo’s predecessor “disgraceful” in 2016.
Why does it matter?
Trump won large majorities of Christian voters in the 2024 election. He made gains among Catholic voters, who backed him by a 56 per cent to 42pc margin after splitting more evenly in previous elections, according to an analysis by Ryan Burge, a political science professor at Washington University and a former pastor.
According to a December report by the [BBC](https://With one in five Americans identifying as Catholic, the Church plays an important role in American life - and politics.), with one in five Americans identifying as Catholic, the Church plays an important role in American life and politics.
“Catholics like Vice President JD Vance, and influential legal activist Leonard Leo, were an important part of Donald Trump’s electoral success. They are at the heart of the cabinet too, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Education Secretary Linda McMahon holding key offices,” the report said.
Earlier this month, Vance also announced a new memoir centred on his conversion to Catholicism.
Further, Trump and US Defence Secretary have invoked God in public messaging during the war on Iran. Last month, Hegseth had prayed during a religious service at the Pentagon that there be “overwhelming violence of action against those who deserve no mercy”.
Trump has also stated that he believes that God approves of the war on Iran. “I do, because God is good — because God is good and God wants to see people taken care of,” he said last week.
What does the world have to say?
For his part, Pope Leo has said he has “a moral duty” to speak out against war and didn’t “fear” Trump. However, the world has reacted strongly to the US president’s remarks.
“I find President Trump’s words about the Holy Father unacceptable. The Pope is the head of the Catholic Church, and it is right and normal for him to call for peace and to condemn all forms of war,” said Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Monday.
Catholic bishops from the US and Italy also defended the pontiff.
“I am disheartened that the president chose to write such disparaging words about the Holy Father,” the head of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, Archbishop Paul Coakley, said in a statement published on Sunday.
The Italian Bishops’ Conference said Pope Leo was “not a political counterpart but the successor of Peter, called to serve the Gospel, truth and peace”.
Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian also condemned Trump’s “insult” and “desecration of Jesus” on X.
Header image: Pope Leo XIV attends a meeting with the Algerian community at the Basilica of our lady of Africa in Algiers, Algeria, April 13, 2026. — Reuters
