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‘WEAK’: Trump Escalates Criticism of Pope

(Alberto Pizzoli//AFP via Getty Images)

Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell / @TheElizMitchell

Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell is the White House Correspondent for "The Daily Signal." Send her an email.

President Donald Trump slammed Pope Leo XIV for being “WEAK on crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy,” drawing backlash from conservative Catholics.

Trump’s comments followed the pope’s criticism of the war in Iran. “I like his brother Louis much better than I like him, because Louis is all MAGA,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Sunday evening. “He gets it, and Leo doesn’t!” Pope Leo’s brother, Louis Prevost, has previously supported the president in social media posts.

Leo responded Monday that he is not afraid of Trump and will continue his calls for peace.

“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, what the Church is here to do,” he told reporters. “I don’t want to get into a debate with [Trump].”

Bishop Robert Barron of the Catholic Diocese of Winona-Rochester called Trump’s comments “entirely inappropriate and disrespectful,” and urged the president to apologize.

“They don’t contribute at all to a constructive conversation,” Barron said. ”It is the Pope’s prerogative to articulate Catholic doctrine and the principles that govern the moral life.”

Trump said he doesn’t want a pope who disagrees with a variety of his foreign policy positions.

“I don’t want a Pope who thinks it’s OK for Iran to have a Nuclear Weapon,” he said. “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,” he continued.

Trump suggested that Pope Leo was chosen because he was an American, and the Catholic Church wanted to curry favor with the president.

“If I wasn’t in the White House, Leo wouldn’t be in the Vatican,” he said. “Unfortunately, Leo’s Weak on Crime, Weak on Nuclear Weapons, does not sit well with me, nor does the fact that he meets with Obama Sympathizers like David Axelrod, a LOSER from the Left, who is one of those who wanted churchgoers and clerics to be arrested.”

Trump demanded that Leo “get his act together,” and “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!” he said.

Shortly after his post about Leo, Trump posted an artificial intelligence-generated image portraying himself as Jesus healing a man in a bed, leading to more backlash from the religious right.

“Why? Seriously, I cannot understand why he’d post this,” conservative sports influencer Riley Gaines posted in response. “Is he looking for a response? Does he actually think this?”

“Either way, two things are true. 1) a little humility would serve him well 2) God shall not be mocked,” she added.

Why? Seriously, I cannot understand why he'd post this. Is he looking for a response? Does he actually think this? Either way, two things are true. 1) a little humility would serve him well 2) God shall not be mocked https://t.co/GViHqWeDEr— Riley Gaines (@Riley_Gaines_) April 13, 2026

Why? Seriously, I cannot understand why he'd post this. Is he looking for a response? Does he actually think this? Either way, two things are true. 1) a little humility would serve him well 2) God shall not be mocked https://t.co/GViHqWeDEr

Cultural commentator and Daily Wire reporter Megan Basham called the photo “OUTRAGEOUS blasphemy.”

“I don’t know if the President thought he was being funny or if he is under the influence of some substance or what possible explanation he could have for this OUTRAGEOUS blasphemy,” she wrote on X. “But he needs to take this down immediately and ask for forgiveness from the American people and then from God.”

I don’t know if the President thought he was being funny or if he is under the influence of some substance or what possible explanation he could have for this OUTRAGEOUS blasphemy. But he needs to take this down immediately and ask for forgiveness from the American people and… https://t.co/scsXaj6Rey— Megan Basham (@megbasham) April 13, 2026

I don’t know if the President thought he was being funny or if he is under the influence of some substance or what possible explanation he could have for this OUTRAGEOUS blasphemy. But he needs to take this down immediately and ask for forgiveness from the American people and… https://t.co/scsXaj6Rey

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