WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Donald Trump lashed out at Pope Leo XIV on social media and in verbal remarks April 12, calling him "weak on crime" and "terrible for foreign policy," as tensions escalate in the Mideast.
Pope Leo has been a staunch critic of combat operations generally, including those initiated by the U.S. and Israel against Iran on Feb. 28. He also condemned Trump's threat to wipe out Iran's "whole civilization," which the president later backed down from, citing negotiations with Pakistani mediators.
The pontiff held a special evening prayer vigil for peace in St. Peter's Basilica April 11.
"I don't want a Pope who thinks it's OK for Iran to have a Nuclear Weapon," Trump said in a post on his social media website, Truth Social, Sunday night. "I don't want a Pope who thinks it's terrible that America attacked Venezuela, a Country that was sending massive amounts of Drugs into the United States and, even worse, emptying their prisons, including murderers, drug dealers, and killers, into our Country. And 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, setting Record Low Numbers in Crime, and creating the Greatest Stock Market in History."
Pope Leo, the first U.S.-born pope, has called for the rejection of nuclear weapons, and there is no evidence he supports Iran having such weapons.
Trump claimed Pope Leo was elected as pope because the Church thought an American pontiff would be "the best way to deal with President Donald J. Trump."
"If I wasn't in the White House, Leo wouldn't be in the Vatican," he wrote.
Elsewhere in the post, the president also alleged the Catholic Church demonstrated "fear" during the COVID-19 pandemic.
"I like his brother Louis much better than I like him, because Louis is all MAGA," Trump said. "He gets it, and Leo doesn't!"
Archbishop Paul S. Coakley of Oklahoma City, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said in a brief statement late April 12 that he was "disheartened that the President chose to write such disparaging words about the Holy Father."
"Pope Leo is not his rival; nor is the Pope a politician," Archbishop Coakley said. "He is the Vicar of Christ who speaks from the truth of the Gospel and for the care of souls."
The post from Trump came shortly after Vice President JD Vance failed to secure the key concessions the U.S. sought from Iran in a marathon 21 hours of negotiations in Islamabad, Pakistan. It also came the same day Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, a Trump ally, lost an election in that country, despite support from Trump and Vance.
Trump made similar comments about Pope Leo to reporters on April 12, telling them, "I don't think he's doing a very good job."
"I'm not a big fan of Pope Leo," Trump said. "He's a very liberal person."
Trump's post also came shortly after a report by The Free Press -- which was disputed by both the Pentagon and the Vatican -- which claimed the Vatican's top diplomat in the U.S. was brought to the Pentagon in January for a "bitter lecture" about comments from Pope Leo after Trump's Venezuela operation that some senior U.S. defense officials perceived as criticism of the Trump administration.
"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 continued in his post. "It's hurting him very badly and, more importantly, it's hurting the Catholic Church!"
In remarks after praying the Regina Caeli April 12, Pope Leo expressed solidarity with those suffering from conflict, also notably in Sudan and Lebanon, saying, "I appeal to the parties in conflict to cease fire and urgently seek a peaceful solution."
A recent NBC News Survey found that Pope Leo has the highest net favorability rating among more than a dozen key public figures and organizations in the U.S. at +34%. The same survey found Trump trailing him at a -12% rating.
— Kate Scanlon, OSV News
Trump draws backlash over Pope Leo rant, 'deeply offensive' image of him looking like Christ
PHILADELPHIA — Catholic bishops and lay leaders across the political spectrum are expressing their shock and disapproval following President Donald Trump's online screed against Pope Leo XIV.
Others have also voiced concern over an image which Trump posted within an hour of attacking the vicar of Christ that appeared to depict Trump as Jesus Christ himself.
Trump deleted the post of him looking like Christ the following day, after an uproar from Christians denouncing the depiction as blasphemous, but he refused to apologize to Pope Leo.
"Pope Leo said things that are wrong," Trump said, doubling down on a 330-word condemnation of the pope April 12 as "WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy," and taking credit for the U.S.-born pope's election.
Archbishop Paul S. Coakley of Oklahoma City, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, issued a statement that evening, saying he was "disheartened that the President chose to write such disparaging words about the Holy Father."
Archbishop Coakley said that the pope is not Trump's "rival," and "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."
Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin of Newark, New Jersey, who was part of an interview on Pope Leo with CBS' "60 Minutes" program that aired April 12, told OSV News in an April 13 statement that Trump's "recent statements and actions ... convey a grave misunderstanding of the Holy Father's ministry and a troubling lack of respect for the faith of millions."
"Pope Leo serves a higher authority and desires to proclaim the Gospel faithfully and advance the Church's peaceful mission in a world deeply in need of healing," he said.
"He will continue to speak clearly against war and other offenses against human dignity and to call for authentic dialogue, because the Church's witness is grounded in the peace of Christ, not in partisan interests," Cardinal Tobin said.
Other fellow prelates rallied around the pope in the wake of Trump's broadside.
Shortly after Trump's post attacking Pope Leo, Ukrainian Greek Catholic Metropolitan Archbishop Borys A. Gudziak of Philadelphia issued a statement posted to his Facebook page, saying he was "most grateful" to the pope for his "personal integrity, spiritual serenity, ethical clarity and courageous and prophetic preaching of the Gospel and of the truth of God's love at this time of great moral confusion.
"The world should listen carefully," he said.
Archbishop Mark S. Rivituso of Mobile, Alabama, backed Archbishop Coakley's statement, adding in an April 13 message that he affirmed "the Holy Father's role as a spiritual leader who speaks from the Gospel and for the care of souls." He encouraged "all the faithful to be one with the Holy Father in praying for and witnessing to the Gospel of Christ's peace and care for all peoples."
In an April 13 post on X, Bishop Robert E. Barron of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, called Trump's statements about the pope "entirely inappropriate and disrespectful."
"It is the Pope's prerogative to articulate Catholic doctrine and the principles that govern the moral life," he said. "In regard to the concrete application of those principles, people of good will can and do disagree."
Bishop Barron praised the Trump administration's engagement with Catholics, noting his membership on the president's Religious Liberty Commission, and encouraged "serious Catholics within the Trump administration" to meet with Vatican officials "so that a real dialogue can take place."
"No President in my lifetime has shown a greater dedication to defending our first liberty," said Bishop Barron, adding, "All that said, I think the President owes the Pope an apology."
But when reporters at the White House asked about Bishop Barron's statement April 13, Trump said he had "nothing to apologize for."
"Pope Leo said things that are wrong, he was very much against what I'm doing with regard to Iran, and you could not have a nuclear Iran, Pope Leo would not be happy with the end result," Trump said.
Speaking to Fox News April 13, Vice President JD Vance, a Catholic, addressed Trump's social media post, saying, "We can respect the pope, we certainly have a good relationship with the Vatican, but we're also going to disagree on substantive questions from time to time. I think it's a totally reasonable thing and isn't particularly newsworthy."
Regarding the AI-generated image of Trump looking like Christ, Vance said he believed it was "a joke" and that the president took it down after recognizing "a lot of people weren't understanding his humor."
"I think the president likes to mix it up over social media, and that's one of the good things about this president," Vance said.
Archbishop George Leo Thomas of Las Vegas said in an April 12 statement that he was "grateful to God for sending us Pope Leo XIV, who is willing to speak truth to power just when we need him the most."
"Pope Leo is calling for dialogue over diatribe, prayer over politics, and diplomacy above destruction," said Archbishop Thomas. "We know that he will be unfazed by the President's ad hominem attacks and sophomoric rhetoric."
The archbishop said the pope is "doing what every spiritual leader is called to do -- to pray for peace, to call for the protection of helpless civilians, and to plead for world leaders to end mass destruction and armed conflict in every part of the world.
"God bless you, Pope Leo," he said. "We stand with you in prayer and offer you our loving support."
Archbishop Nelson J. Pérez of Philadelphia said in an April 13 statement that the pope and his message "deserve respect and admiration."
"His continued calls for peace, hope, diplomacy, and the conversion of hearts should be heeded by all," said Archbishop Pérez, pointing out how Pope Leo "has consistently spoken with clarity and compassion" to promote "peaceful resolutions to complex challenges" that uphold human dignity.
Joining the bishops in protesting Trump's post was Ashley McGuire, senior fellow at The Catholic Association, an organization dedicated to defending religious liberty and the Church in the public square.
In an April 13 statement to OSV News, McGuire said the association "laments President Trump's disparaging and disrespectful remarks about Pope Leo."
"The Catholic Church does not in any way fit into American political boxes. It will always prioritize the protection of innocent life in all its stages as well as the cause of the poor and marginalized," said McGuire. "Insulting the Pope, and all Catholics by extension, with the hope of making the Church bend to American political agendas, is discouraging and counterproductive."
The Council on American-Islamic Relations also offered an April 13 message of support, saying, "We stand in solidarity with the Catholic community in the wake of President Trump's attack on Pope Leo."
CAIR referenced an earlier post Trump made, in which he threatened to annihilate Iran while "sarcastically praising Allah," and said that "the president's mockery of religion is both deranged and insulting."
Kelsey Reinhardt, CEO of the political lobbying organization Catholic Vote, said in a lengthy post on X April 13 that Trump's post "insulting Pope Leo" had "crossed, again, a line of decorum" and that "calls for an apology are well founded."
However, Reinhardt said that "the Pope also needs to understand that many Americans view his interventions as overtly political and aligned with one side of the political spectrum."
Reinhardt, whose organization is publicly aligned with Trump's agenda, particularly on immigration policy, and is not formally authorized by any Catholic bishop to use Catholic in its name, blamed "parts of the media" and "identifiable bad actors" for manufacturing "a large-scale confrontation between the Vatican and the United States, between Pope Leo and President Trump, or between fidelity to the Holy Father and love of country."
Trump's social media tirade against Pope Leo was also compounded by a Truth Social post -- delivered 46 minutes later -- showing a Christ-like rendering of Trump in white and red robes, laying one glowing hand on a man on a sickbed looking up at him, with Trump's other hand holding an orb of light.
Surrounding the bed were at least four figures appearing to venerate Trump, who was framed by images of the Statue of Liberty, the Lincoln Memorial, the U.S. flag, warplanes, bald eagles, and five heavenly figures in military gear.
"The graphic exploitation of sacred imagery is deeply offensive and undermines the reverence owed to what believers hold most dear," Cardinal Tobin told OSV News.
McGuire said Trump's "use of imagery that mocks Jesus Christ is beyond the pale and is not just insulting to Catholics, but to all Christians."
A number of prominent evangelical leaders and influencers -- including Doug Wilson, pastor of U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, and podcast host Riley Gaines -- also deplored the image as blasphemous.
Rev. Jim Wallis, founding director of Georgetown University's Center on Faith and Justice, told OSV News the image is "the epitome of Christian nationalism," as well as "stark heresy and a pure blasphemy."
"Donald Trump has a dangerous messianic complex," Rev. Wallis said.
Matthew D. Taylor, visiting scholar at the Georgetown center and an expert on Christian nationalist ideology, agreed, adding that the image is "typical of the quasi-messianic status he has recently started to claim for himself."
"I don't see how that could possibly end well," he said.
Amid the outrage, the AI-generated image was removed from Trump's Truth Social feed on April 13. The president told reporters the same day that he thought the depiction had been of him "as a doctor making people better and I do make people better. I make people a lot better."
"I did post it," he said, "and I thought it was me as a doctor and had to do with the Red Cross."
— Gina Christian, OSV News
Pope Leo responds to Trump: 'Blessed are the peacemakers'
ABOARD THE PAPAL FLIGHT TO ALGIERS — Pope Leo XIV said April 13 he has "no fear" of President Donald Trump's administration and responded to Trump's criticism by telling journalists that his message to the U.S. president is "the message of the Gospel: Blessed are the peacemakers."
Speaking aboard the papal plane, a chartered ITA Airways flight, en route from Rome to Algiers, the pope said that he had seen Trump's recent social media post lashing out at him the night before the papal trip.
"I have no fear neither of the Trump administration nor speaking out loudly of the message of the Gospel, which is what I believe I am here to do, what the Church is here to do," the pope said during the flight in a video recorded by OSV News.
The pope spoke in response to Trump's comments April 12 calling the pope "weak on crime" and "terrible for foreign policy," as tensions escalate in the Middle East.
"We are not politicians," Pope Leo said. "We are not looking to make foreign policy … with the same perspective that he might understand it, but I do believe in the message of the Gospel: 'Blessed are the peacemakers' is the message that the world needs to hear today.”
Pope Leo added that he did not intend to engage in a political dispute.
"I do not look at my role as being political, a politician," the pope said. " I don't want to get into debate with him. I don't think that the message of the Gospel is meant to be abused in the way that some people are doing."
"The message of the Church, my message, the message of the Gospel: Blessed are the peacemakers," he underlined.
In a statement to the press, Charlotte Bishop Michael Martin said, “I am grateful for Pope Leo XIV’s ongoing proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ which consistently calls down ‘Peace’ upon all of us, especially in this Easter season. The Holy Father knows that when God is our central focus, all things are possible, even between national leaders who are in conflict.”
Pope Leo has been a staunch critic of combat operations generally, including those initiated by the U.S. and Israel against Iran on Feb. 28. He also condemned Trump's threat to wipe out Iran's "whole civilization," which the president later backed down from, citing negotiations with Pakistani mediators.
The pontiff held a special evening prayer vigil for peace in St. Peter's Basilica April 11.
"I will continue to speak out loudly against war, looking to promote peace, promoting dialogue and multilateral relationships among the States to look for just solutions to problems," Pope Leo said on the way to Algiers.
"Too many people are suffering in the world today. Too many innocent people are being killed. And I think someone has to stand up and say there's a better way," he added.
Trump, writing on Truth Social platform late April 12 said he did not want "a Pope who thinks it's OK for Iran to have a Nuclear Weapon."
"I don't want a Pope who thinks it's terrible that America attacked Venezuela, a Country that was sending massive amounts of Drugs into the United States and, even worse, emptying their prisons, including murderers, drug dealers, and killers, into our Country. And 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, setting Record Low Numbers in Crime, and creating the Greatest Stock Market in History," the president wrote on Truth Social.
Pope Leo commented, "It’s ironic -- the name of the site itself. Say no more."
Pope Leo, the first U.S.-born pope, has called for the rejection of nuclear weapons, and there is no evidence he supports Iran having such weapons.
Trump claimed Pope Leo was elected as pope because the Church thought an American pontiff would be "the best way to deal with President Donald J. Trump."
"If I wasn't in the White House, Leo wouldn't be in the Vatican," he wrote.
Several journalists aboard the plane asked Pope Leo about Trump's comments to which the pope explained, "To put my message on the same plane as what the president has attempted to do here, I think is not understanding what the message of the Gospel is, and I am sorry to hear that but I will continue on with what I believe is the mission of the Church in the world today."
Pope Leo spoke to journalists on the first flight of the pope's 11-day, four-country tour of Africa in which he will visit Algeria, Cameroon, Angola and Equatorial Guinea.
In a separate statement late April 12, Archbishop Paul S. Coakley of Oklahoma City, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said he was "disheartened" by Trump's remarks.
"Pope Leo is not his rival; nor is the Pope a politician," Archbishop Coakley said. "He is the Vicar of Christ who speaks from the truth of the Gospel and for the care of souls."
— Courtney Mares, OSV News