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Trump’s spat with Pope Leo is a bad political bet as midterms loom

President Donald Trump and Pope Leo XIV are in a war of words right now — when they should be allies, not enemies.

Both want peace, but the president intends to get it by winning a war against Iran, while the pope thinks the war isn’t worth fighting.

“I don’t want a Pope who thinks it’s OK for Iran to have a Nuclear Weapon,” Trump said Sunday on Truth Social, in a post blasting the pontiff as “weak on crime and terrible for foreign policy.”

With midterm elections just seven months away, Catholic voters suddenly find themselves in the crossfire between the Vatican and the White House.

Trump proved to be a magnet for Catholics two years ago: They accounted for more than 1 in 5 of his 2024 voters, and he bested Kamala Harris among Catholics by a commanding 12 percentage points.

Even in 2020, Catholics split almost evenly between Trump and a member of their own church.

More From Daniel McCarthy

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Nobody would have guessed Joe Biden was Catholic to judge from his enthusiastic support for abortion rights, yet he attends Mass faithfully, and he did win the Catholic vote in 2020 — but only barely, 50% to Trump’s 49%.

The days when descendants of Irish and........

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