Trump angers Catholics in targeting Pope Leo XIV over Iran war pushback 

President Trump is escalating a rare feud with Pope Leo XIV over pushback on the Iran war, a move that could isolate the president’s Catholic voting bloc and complicate the Catholic members of his administration, including the first lady.

Trump posted a lengthy Truth Social post Sunday night calling the pope “weak” on crime and insisting the Catholic leader believed it was OK for Iran to have a nuclear weapon, though Leo has not expressed such a notion.

The pope in return, said he had “no fear” of the Trump administration, expressing rare defiance of the White House.

The openly antagonizing message to the leader of a church with more than 1 billion members proves another unprecedented moment by Trump in his second term.

Ashley McGuire, senior fellow with the Catholic Association, said seeing Trump’s comments about the pope was a “combination of disappointment and confusion.”

“It doesn’t make sense politically for Trump to be attacking the pope, especially when the Catholic vote was the difference between 2020 and 2024, so I don’t understand why he would, in my opinion, gratuitously attack the leader of 1.4 billion Catholics,” McGuire said.

“President Trump was treating him like a political rival, and he’s just not,” she said.

The president’s feud with the first American pope does carry a political risk for him ahead of the 2026 midterms where Republicans are vying to keep control of the House and the Senate.

“I think he will regret these remarks politically in the midterms,” said Christopher Hale, a democratic operative and publisher of the Substack “Letters from Leo.” “And I think who will regret the remarks most is [Vice President] J.D. Vance and his potential campaign for president.”

Vance is one of several Catholic members of Trump’s administration, in addition to Secretary of State Marco Rubio. First lady Melania Trump is also Catholic.

Leo shocked the world by being elected as the first American pontiff in May. Since then, he’s been relatively mum about mentioning his country of origin or the president by name, including in his statements condemning the Iran war.

“He’s been clear from the outset that he wants to be the pope of 1.4 billion Catholics and not have a particular American bias, either in intervention or he doesn’t want to become a pundit about American politics,” Hale said. “He gets involved when it gets close to core gospel values that affect a large loss of humanity. So that for him is two issues during his first year, it’s the Iran war and migration, and that’s where we’re seeing him speak out.”

On social media, the pope has been calling for peace amid the war with Iran, saying in one post earlier this month that “God does not bless any conflict.”

“Anyone who is a disciple of Christ, the Prince of Peace, is never on the side of those who once wielded the sword and today drop bombs,” he wrote. “Military action will not create space for freedom or times of #Peace, which comes only from the patient promotion of coexistence and dialogue among peoples.”

On Saturday, he denounced the “delusion of omnipotence” that led to the continuation of the war.

“Enough of the idolatry of self and money!” he said. “Enough of the display of power! Enough of war!”

Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday he’s “not a fan” of the pope.

But the president went much further in a Truth Social post to say he likes the pope’s brother Louis Prevost “much better” because he supports Trump’s MAGA movement.

“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,” he wrote, adding, “I don’t want a Pope who criticizes the President of the United States because I’m doing exactly what I was elected.”

“Leo should be thankful because, as everyone knows, he was a shocking surprise,” he wrote. “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.”

On Monday, Trump said he wouldn’t apologize to the pope after facing conservative backlash for the post.

Trump also defended a photo he posted on Truth Social that was made with AI and depicted him as Jesus healing a sick person. He took it down after it was heavily criticized.

Leo for his part on Monday said he’s “not afraid of the Trump administration or of speaking out loudly about the message of the Gospel, which is what the Church works for.”

“I will continue to speak out strongly against war, seeking to promote peace, promoting dialogue and multilateralism among states to find solutions to problems,” he said while embarking on an 11-day trip to Africa, according to The Associated Press.

Trump’s comments were criticized broadly.

Bishop Robert Barron, a member of Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission, slammed his comments as “entirely inappropriate and disrespectful.”

“No President in my lifetime has shown a greater dedication to defending our first liberty,” he wrote. “All that said, I think the President owes the Pope an apology.”

Archbishop Paul S. Coakley, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said in a statement on social media 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,” he wrote. “He is the Vicar of Christ who speaks from the truth of the Gospel and for the care of souls.”

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni also weighed in, saying she finds Trump’s comments “unacceptable.”

“The Pope is the head of the Catholic Church, and it is right and normal that he calls for peace and condemns every form of war,” she wrote.

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