Pope Leo, the first US-born Pope, dismissed Donald Trump's insults, emphasising his commitment to the Gospel. Photo / Getty Images
US President Donald Trump issued sharp criticism of Pope Leo XIV, calling him “weak on crime,” and “terrible for foreign policy”, while claiming the first US-born pontiff would not have been selected if it hadn’t been for Trump.
Leo dismissed his insults, telling reporters Monday: “I have no fear of the Trump Administration.”
“I don’t want a Pope who thinks it’s terrible that America attacked Venezuela,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post, shortly before returning to Washington from Miami on Sunday night (local time). “And I don’t want a Pope who criticises the President of the United States because I’m doing exactly what I was elected, IN A LANDSLIDE, to do,” Trump continued.
He wrote that Pope Leo “should be thankful”, calling his election by the College of Cardinals last year a shock.
“He wasn’t on any list to be Pope, and was only put there by the Church because he was an American, and they thought that would be the best way to deal with President Donald J. Trump,” Trump wrote. “If I wasn’t in the White House, Leo wouldn’t be in the Vatican.”
Asked about the post after landing at Joint Base Andrews, Trump called Pope Leo “a very liberal person”.
“I don’t think he’s doing a very good job. He likes crime, I guess,” Trump said. “I am not a fan of Pope Leo.”
Leo responded to Trump’s comments on Monday morning aboard a flight to Algeria for a 10-day papal visit to Africa. “I have no fear of the Trump Administration, or speaking out loudly of the message of the Gospel, which is what I believe I am here to do,” he told journalists on the plane.
“I don’t want to get into a debate with him,” he added. “I don’t think that the message of the Gospel is meant to be abused in the way that some people are doing.”
Pope Leo, 70, born Robert Prevost in Chicago, was chosen to lead the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics last year after the death of Pope Francis. Pope Leo began his papacy a few months into Trump’s second term in office – and for much of the last year, Trump largely steered away from attacking him. Pope Leo, too, avoided much direct criticism of Trump until recently, but was critical of the Administration’s policies on immigration and war.
Trump and Pope Francis had an often-tense relationship. The two met cordially in 2017 when Trump visited the Vatican, after Pope Francis criticised Trump’s immigration policies while he was a candidate in the 2016 election. Trump that year said it was “disgraceful” that Pope Francis would question his devotion to the Christian faith. The two also clashed over Trump’s Middle East policies.
Shortly before Leo was named, Trump had posted to social media an artificial intelligence-generated photo depicting himself as the Pope. In another Truth Social post on Sunday (local time), he depicted himself as a Jesus-like figure alongside the American flag.
While Pope Leo has rarely mentioned Trump by name in his criticisms of the President’s policies, in recent weeks he has urged Trump to end the war against Iran, and last week described Trump’s threat to end Iranian civilisation as “truly unacceptable”.
On Saturday (local time), Pope Leo held a prayer vigil for peace, urging Catholics around the world to take part. During his address condemning war, Pope Leo spoke of the “delusion of omnipotence that is becoming increasingly unpredictable and aggressive”, but did not mention Trump or any other leaders.
“Those who pray do not kill or threaten with death,” Pope Leo said. “Death enslaves those who have turned their backs on the living God, turning themselves and their own power into a mute, blind, and deaf idol – to which they sacrifice every value, demanding that the whole world bend its knee.”
Trump’s social media attack on the Pope came soon after an episode of CBS’s 60 Minutes in which Norah O’Donnell interviewed three American cardinals with close ties to Leo, who criticised the White House’s recent social media videos that seemingly made light of US bombs dropped on Iran. On Saturday evening (local time), one of the clergy members, Cardinal Robert McElroy, the archbishop of Washington, DC, gave a homily in which he called the war with Iran “immoral” and urged believers to speak out against it. He drew applause from the congregation.
Trump in his post also criticised Pope Leo for meeting on Friday (local time) with David Axelrod, a former Barack Obama adviser and a prominent Democratic commentator.
“Leo should get his act together as Pope, use Common Sense, stop catering to the Radical Left, and focus on being a Great Pope, not a Politician,” Trump wrote.
Archbishop Paul S. Coakley, president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, said in a statement that he was “disheartened” by Trump’s words: “Pope Leo is not his rival; nor is the Pope a politician. He is the Vicar of Christ who speaks from the truth of the Gospel and for the care of souls.”
Trump’s criticisms come against a backdrop of controversy over an unusual meeting that Department of War officials held with the Vatican’s ambassador to the US. The meeting with Cardinal Christophe Pierre took place in January, but only became public recently. One Vatican official described the session as not “a walk in the park” for the cardinal.
In a statement provided to the Washington Post on Thursday (local time), White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly noted the Administration has a “positive relationship with the Vatican, which was strengthened when Vice-President Vance attended the Pope Leo XIV’s inaugural mass last year”.
Vance, a Catholic, will soon release a book on his conversion to the faith.
In the last election, Trump won a majority of Catholic voters, taking 55% of the Catholic vote to 43% for Vice-President Kamala Harris, the Democratic candidate, according to an analysis of the vote by the nonpartisan Pew Research Centre. Four years earlier, Catholics had split almost evenly: 50% voted for Joe Biden and 49% for Trump, Pew found.
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