President Donald Trump on Thursday claimed to not have any beef with Pope Leo XIV and suggested that his multiple attacks against the American-born Bishop of Rome are merely the product of a disagreement over Iran’s nuclear weapons program — something the pontiff has never spoken publicly about.
Speaking to reporters outside the White House before he departed for a series of political appearances in Las Vegas and Arizona, Trump denied that he was “fighting” with Leo while simultaneously claiming that the Pope had voiced approval of Iran’s right to have a nuclear weapon.
“I’m not fighting with him. The pope made a statement. He says Iran can have a nuclear weapon. I say Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon,” Trump said.
Leo, whose real name is Robert Prevost, has never said Iran should be permitted to possess nuclear weapons and has repeatedly spoken out against them, including in a March 5 video in which he prayed that “nations renounce weapons and choose the path of dialogue and diplomacy” so the “the nuclear threat” would “never again dictate the future of humanity.”
Nonetheless, the Chicago native has found himself in Trump’s crosshairs since earlier this week after he criticized the president’s rhetoric towards Iran, including his threats to attack civilian infrastructure and his warning that Iran’s “whole civilization will die … never to be brought back again” last week as he pressured Tehran to agree to a ceasefire deal and open the Strait of Hormuz.
After the pontiff called Trump’s bellicose threats against Iranian civilians “truly unacceptable,” the president lashed out on Truth Social late Sunday with a post blasting Leo as “WEAK” on crime and “terrible” on foreign policy, posted as part of a late-night spree that also saw him upload an AI-generated image of himself as Jesus.
Pressed further by reporters on why he was continuing to feud with the leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics, Trump said he had “to do what is right.”
“The pope has to understand that this is the real world. It’s a nasty world. But as far as the pope and saying what he wants, he can do that. … I’m sure the Pope is a great guy. I haven’t met him but I disagree with the pope, if the pope would allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon,” he said.
The president’s attempt to lower the temperature on his days-old pontifical tiff comes days after his late-night Truth Social tirade against the 267th successor to Saint Peter, seemingly in response to Leo’s repeated calls for peace.
During an April 11 prayer service, Leo appeared to criticize the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran when he decried what he called “delusion of omnipotence that surrounds us and is becoming increasingly unpredictable and aggressive.”
“Enough of the idolatry of self and money!” the pope said. “Enough of the display of power! Enough of war! True strength is shown in serving life.”
The next day, Trump’s social media screed rattled off a lengthy list of grievances against Leo, took credit for his election by the College of Cardinals last year, and warned that the Windy City native “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.”
When asked about the president’s comments by reporters traveling with him en route to Africa that same day, Leo said he had “no fear of the Trump administration or speaking out loudly of the message of the Gospel.”
“I do not look at my role as being political, a politician. I don’t want to get into a debate with him. I don’t think that the message of the Gospel is meant to be abused in the way that some people are doing,” he said.
Trump’s open feuding with the Pope has drawn criticism from even some of his close supporters, including Catholic Bishop Robert Barron, who is a member of the president’s White House religious liberty commission.
Barron said it was Leo’s job to speak about matters of Catholic doctrine, called Trump’s attack on the pontiff “entirely inappropriate and disrespectful” and added that he thought Trump “owes the Pope an apology.”
Trump also targeted Leo with another Truth Social post on Wednesday, writing: “Will someone please tell Pope Leo that Iran has killed at least 42,000 innocent, completely unarmed, protesters in the last two months, and that for Iran to have a Nuclear Bomb is absolutely unacceptable.”
And while his remarks to reporters appeared to be an effort to lower the temperature amid criticism, just hours before he left the White House police in New Lenox, Illinois announced that they’d responded to a bomb threat at the home of John Prevost, one of Leo’s brothers.
