On Sunday, Donald Trump launched a verbal attack against Pope Leo, following the Pope’s recent criticism of the ongoing conflict in Iran. The pontiff, originally from the United States, has been outspoken about his stance on the war, prompting a strong response from the former president.
Trump, speaking to reporters as he disembarked from Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews, expressed his dissatisfaction with Pope Leo’s leadership. “I don’t think he’s doing a very good job. He seems to support crime,” Trump remarked bluntly.
He continued, “We don’t appreciate a pope who endorses the possession of nuclear weapons. We don’t want a leader who condones crime. I am not a supporter of Pope Leo.”
These remarks followed a meeting between Pope Leo and David Axelrod, who previously managed campaigns for Barack Obama and also faced criticism from Trump.
Taking to Truth Social on Sunday evening, Trump further criticized the Pope by stating, “Pope Leo is WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy.”
‘Pope Leo is WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy,’ Trump wrote on Truth Social Sunday night.
The President then referenced Leo’s brother Louis, who has said he’s a supporter of Trump and was feted at the White House last year.
‘I like his brother Louis much better than I like him, because Louis is all MAGA. He gets it, and Leo doesn’t!’
Trump then criticized Pope Leo again for suggesting he wanted Iran to have a nuclear weapon. Denuclearization of Iran is one of Trump’s main reasons for striking Tehran.
Donald Trump trashed ‘weak’ Pope Leo in a lengthy Truth Social post on Sunday after weeks of criticism of the Iran War from the American-born Pontiff
It also comes after Pope Leo met with former Barack Obama campaign manager David Axelrod, which Trump also slammed
‘I don’t 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.’
The President went deeper on his opposition to Pope Leo and the church’s stance on several issues in the Truth Social post.
‘He talks about ‘fear’ of the Trump Administration, but doesn’t mention the FEAR that the Catholic Church, and all other Christian Organizations, had during COVID when they were arresting priests, ministers, and everybody else, for holding Church Services, even when going outside, and being ten and even twenty feet apart,’ Trump WROTE.
The President then claimed that Pope Leo ‘criticizes the President of the United States because I’m doing exactly what I was elected, IN A LANDSLIDE, to do.’
Trump then went on to even suggest that he is the only reason that Pope Leo became the first American leader of the Catholic Church.
‘Leo should be thankful because, as everyone knows, he was a shocking surprise. 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. If I wasn’t in the White House, Leo wouldn’t be in the Vatican.’
Trump continued to rip Pope Leo for his meeting with Axelrod, who the President called an ‘Obama sympathizer’ and ‘a LOSER from the Left, who is one of those who wanted churchgoers and clerics to be arrested.’
‘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. It’s hurting him very badly and, more importantly, it’s hurting the Catholic Church!’
It was an extraordinary broadside against the global leader of the Catholic Church, exacerbating a feud that began over the war in Iran.
Trump then posted what appeared to be an AI drawing of himself as Jesus Christ healing a sick person, followed by a photoshop of what it would look like if Trump Tower were built on the moon.
The post followed Leo having denounced over the weekend the ‘delusion of omnipotence’ that is fueling the US-Israel war in Iran and demanded political leaders stop and negotiate peace.
Leo presided over an evening prayer service in St. Peter’s Basilica on the same day the United States and Iran began face-to-face negotiations in Pakistan during a fragile ceasefire.
The US-born pope didn’t mention the United States or Trump by name in his prayer.
But Leo’s tone and message appeared directed at Trump and US officials, who have boasted of US military superiority and justified the war in religious terms.
It came after the pontiff seemed to use his first Easter Sunday address to send a message to Trump as he urged ‘let those who have weapons lay them down’.
The pope, who has strongly denounced Trump’s war in Iran, deplored to the thousands gathered in St Peter’s Square that people ‘are growing accustomed to violence, resigning ourselves to it and becoming indifferent’.
The President referenced Leo’s brother Louis, who has said he’s a supporter of Trump and was feted at the White House last year
Key Barack Obama advisor David Axelrod recently met with Pope Leo
Speaking from the Vatican balcony, the first US-born pope exclaimed: ‘Let those who have weapons lay them down!
‘Let those who have the power to unleash wars choose peace! Not a peace imposed by force but by dialogue.’
Leo, 70, did not specify a conflict within his message, known as the Urbi et Orbi blessing – translated as ‘to the city and the world’.
The papal address was unusually short and lasted around 15 minutes. It is normally around double the length in time.
Leo also reflected on the biblical story of Easter – in which Jesus rises from the dead three days after peacefully accepting his death by crucifixion – to highlight the ‘entirely nonviolent’ nature of Christ.
He added the peace Jesus gives ‘is not merely the silence of weapons’, and urged: ‘On this day of celebration, let us abandon every desire for conflict, domination and power, and implore the Lord to grant his peace to a world ravaged by wars.’
Leo is scheduled to leave Monday for an 11-day trip to Africa.
