President Trump has characterised Pope Leo XIV as “WEAK” on crime and “terrible” on foreign policy, marking just the latest in a string of clashes between the president and the pontiffs.
Last week, Pope Leo described Trump’s warning that an “entire civilization will die tonight”, referring to Iran, as “truly unacceptable.” The pope also suggested there is a “delusion of omnipotence” driving war between the United States and Iran.
In his Truth Social blasts Sunday night, the president claimed the pope “thinks it’s OK for Iran to have a Nuclear Weapon” and was elected to the position “because he was an American, and they thought that would be the best way to deal with President Donald J. Trump.”
Leo addressed the comments onboard a Monday morning flight to Algiers, saying “I don’t want to get into a debate with him” and that he has no fear of the Trump Administration.
Though Trump initially welcomed Leo’s election to the papacy as a “great honour” for the U.S., this exchange is just the latest in a series of disputes between the American president and leader of the Catholic Church.
Following the U.S.’s capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro in January, the bishop of Rome also decried a “diplomacy based on force” and warned of a “new Orwellian-style language” fuelling hyper-partisanship.
While not specifically criticising Trump, Leo has previously shared a series of critical views on policies pursued by the president’s administration.
Last year, he questioned whether hardline immigration policies were in line with the Church’s pro-life teachings, and called for a “deep reflection” about the way migrants are being treated in the United States.
“Someone who says, ‘I am against abortion but I am in agreement with the inhuman treatment of immigrants in the United States’, I don’t know if that’s pro-life,” the pontiff said in September.
Trump’s latest exchanges with the papacy mark a pattern extending beyond Leo to his predecessor, Pope Francis. From the beginning to the end of their relationship, their disputes centred around the rights of migrants.
Referring to the then-candidate Trump in 2016, Francis said anyone who builds a wall to keep out migrants was “not Christian” – a comment Trump called “disgraceful.”
Trump, who had declared his desire to deport nearly 11 million undocumented immigrants from the U.S., blamed Mexico for the pope’s “disgraceful” remarks in a Facebook post in February 2016.
“If and when the Vatican is attacked by ISIS, which as everyone knows is ISIS’s ultimate trophy, I can promise you that the Pope would have only wished and prayed that Donald Trump would have been President because this would not have happened,” he wrote.
“ISIS would have been eradicated unlike what is happening now with our all talk, no action politicians.
“For a religious leader to question a person’s faith is disgraceful. I am proud to be a Christian and as President I will not allow Christianity to be consistently attacked and weakened, unlike what is happening now, with our current President.
“No leader, especially a religious leader, should have the right to question another man’s religion or faith. They are using the Pope as a pawn and they should be ashamed of themselves for doing so, especially when so many lives are involved and when illegal immigration is so rampant.”
In February 2025, shortly before his death, Francis wrote in an open letter to American bishops that deporting people trying to escape difficult situations violates the “dignity of many men and women, and of entire families” and urged Catholics to reject anti-immigrant narratives.
Unlike Trump’s stormy relationships with other world leaders like those of Britain or Spain – constituencies with little baring on his base – a total break with the pontiff could pose consequences at the polls.
As with most Republican POTUSs, Trump’s base is considerably reliant on conservative, religious voters, including Catholics.
According to a Fox News national poll conducted 20-23 March, Trump’s approval rating among Catholic voters is now underwater, with 48 percent of respondents saying they approved of the job Trump is doing as president, and 52 percent disapproving.
Effects of a fallout might even reverberate among his executive branch, of whom Catholics include Vice President JD Vance, the majority of the Supreme Court, and Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, who is known to regularly pray with her staff before briefings.
