Pope Leo, the first U.S.-born pontiff, has fired back after President Donald Trump lashed out at him over the Iran war.
Trump derided Leo as “terrible” in an unusual broadside against the leader of the Catholic church, who responded by vowing to continue denouncing war and suffering.
“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,” Leo told reporters Monday. “I don’t want to get into a debate with [Trump].”
“I will continue to speak out loudly against war, looking to promote peace, promoting dialogue and multilateral relationships among the states to look for just solutions to problems,” the pope continued aboard a papal flight to Algiers, where he is embarking on a 10-day tour to four African countries.
“Too many people are suffering in the world today,” he said. “Too many innocent people are being killed. And I think someone has to stand up and say there’s a better way.”
Archbishop Paul S. Coakley, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said he was disheartened by Trump’s comments.
“Pope Leo is not his rival; nor is the Pope a politician. He is the Vicar of Christ who speaks from the truth of the Gospel and for the care of souls,” he said in a statement.
Trump is facing widespread backlash for his comments, and for sharing an AI picture of himself as Jesus.
“Pope Leo is WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy,” Trump wrote in a stunning 334-word Truth Social post Sunday night while flying back to Washington, D.C. from Florida.
“I don’t want a Pope who thinks it’s OK for Iran to have a Nuclear Weapon,” he continued. “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.”
Trump claimed Leo — formerly Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost — was elected pope only because he is president, and slammed him for meeting with David Axelrod, former senior advisor to President Barack Obama, last week.
“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,” the president concluded.
Less than an hour later, Trump posted an AI-generated image portraying himself as Jesus appearing to heal a sick man, encircled by bald eagles and fighter jets.
He continued his tirade against the pontiff when his plane touched down, telling reporters on the tarmac: “I’m not a fan of Pope Leo.”
His comments came after Leo said this weekend that a “delusion of omnipotence” triggered the Iran war. Last month, he wrote on X that God “does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them.”
Leo also described Trump’s threats last week to wipe out “an entire civilization” in Iran as “truly unacceptable.”
The U.S. president’s scathing attack on the Catholic Church’s leader drew broad backlash in the states — including from some members of his own party.
“The deranged and disgusting post from Trump attacking Pope Leo should certainly help him appeal to the more than 50 million Americans who identify as Catholics,” Rep. Pramila Jayapal, a Washington Democrat, wrote on X.
“Trump shamefully attacked His Holiness Pope Leo XIV,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said in a statement. “People of faith will never worship a wannabe King. We worship an almighty GOD.”
“On Orthodox Easter, President Trump attacked the Pope because the Pope is rightly against Trump’s war in Iran and then he posted this picture of himself as if he is replacing Jesus,” former Georgia GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene wrote on X. “I completely denounce this and I’m praying against it!!!”
In an interview with 60 Minutes aired on Sunday, Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich took issue with the administration’s social media posts about the Iran war, including videos of strikes edited together with movie scenes.
“It is sickening,” Cupich said. “To splice together movie cuts with actual bombing and targeting of people for the purposes of entertainment is sickening… This is not who we are. We’re better than this.”
The Iran war has engulfed large swaths of the Middle East in violence and killed thousands of people. The U.S. and Iran agreed to a ceasefire last week, but it remains fragile, particularly after peace talks failed this weekend and the U.S. is on the verge of creating a blockade in the Strait of Hormuz.
Earlier this month, it was reported that the American Pope may not return to the U.S. while Trump remains in office.
The Free Press reported that in the wake of the Pope’s annual address to the Vatican’s diplomatic corps in January, in which he criticized states seeking conflict around the globe, the Department of Defense invited Cardinal Christophe Pierre for a meeting.
At the time, Pierre was serving as Pope Leo’s personal envoy to the U.S. The Pentagon requesting a meeting with a Vatican official is “unprecedented,” according to the report.
According to Vatican and U.S. officials who were briefed on the meeting and spoke to the outlet, the Pentagon criticized the Pope’s statements in January, interpreting them as hostile attacks on Trump’s policies. U.S. officials reportedly lectured the church representatives, with one even invoking the Avignon Papacy — a period of time when the French government used military force to exert influence over the Vatican.
A Pentagon spokesperson told Newsweek that The Free Press’s reporting was “highly exaggerated and distorted.”
“I would actually like to talk to Cardinal Christophe Pierre and, frankly, to our people, to figure out what actually happened,” Vice President JD Vance, a Catholic, told reporters last week. “I think it’s always a bad idea to offer an opinion on stories that are unconfirmed and uncorroborated, so I’m not going to do that.”
