President Donald Trump criticized Pope Leo XIV in an unusual and direct attack against the leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics, intensifying tensions between the White House and the Vatican.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump described the pope as “weak on crime” and “terrible for foreign policy“, comments that prompted immediate reactions from religious personalities and Catholic communities. These remarks seem to be a response to recent criticisms by the pontiff regarding American policies, especially concerning the Iranian conflict and immigration.
Pope Leo XIV, the first American pope, has increasingly spoken out against war, condemning what he calls the “folly of war” and urging world leaders to seek diplomatic solutions. He has also questioned whether strict immigration policies align with Christian teachings.
As Trump declares on Truth Social:
Pope Leo is weak on crime and terrible on foreign policy. He talks about the “fear” of the Trump administration, but does not mention the FEAR that the Catholic Church and all other Christian organizations had during COVID when they were stopping priests, ministers, and everyone else from holding religious services, even going outside, and being ten or even twenty feet apart. I like his brother Louis much more than I like him because Louis is all MAGA. He understood, and Leo did not! (…)
