Trump’s crusade against the Vatican

During the 1800s, American Catholics faced increasing scrutiny about where their loyalties lay. Were they with the US republic or with that despotic foreign power in Rome? Though suspicions have waned over the past century, thanks to the man in the White House, American Catholics may feel as if they’re being pulled in two directions once again.

Pope Leo is ‘WEAK on crime’ and ‘terrible on foreign policy’, US president Donald Trump announced on Sunday in a lengthy Truth Social post. The wall of text went on: ‘I don’t want a Pope who thinks it’s terrible that America attacked Venezuela… and I don’t want a Pope who criticises the President of the United States because I’m doing exactly what I was elected, IN A LANDSLIDE, to do.’

The president then implied that the first American-born pontiff should be thankful: ‘If I wasn’t in the White House, Leo wouldn’t be in the Vatican.’ The president’s parting shot came some 40 minutes later, when he uploaded a now-deleted AI rendering of himself dressed as Jesus, healing a sick man against the backdrop of the American flag.

Trump is not the first president to fall out with the Holy Father. That said, this latest outburst is worlds away from the ‘elegant row’ between Theodore Roosevelt and Pope Pius during the Second World War, or the cordial scolding given to Bill Clinton by Pope John Paul over abortion legislation. Trump’s tantrum comes after months of tension between the White House and the Holy See – where, much to his dismay, religious officials have failed to don their MAGA hats and cheer on America’s war with Iran.

Back in January, the Free Press reported that Cardinal Pierre, the papal nuncio, was summoned to the White House by US undersecretary of war Eldridge Colby for a ‘bitter lecture’. According to an anonymous source, one US official even ‘went so far as to invoke the Avignon Papacy’ during the meeting. If such a reference was really made, it would be bizarre indeed. The Avignon Papacy refers to the 68 years during the 14th century when seven consecutive Popes were forced to reside in France, rather than Rome. This eventually led to the Great Western Schism. While both the Vatican and the White House have accused the Free Press report of mischaracterising the meeting, the increasingly strained relationship between the two is becoming difficult to deny.

Unsurprisingly, Pope Leo has been a staunch critic of all forms of military intervention. ‘God does not bless any conflict’, he said last week on his X account. Disciples of Christ are ‘never on the side of those who once wielded the sword and today drop bombs’. He has since referred to Trump’s bluster about ending ‘a whole civilisation’ in Iran as ‘unacceptable’. While it is rare for a Pope to respond directly to the statements of a world leader, for a 21st-century pontiff to be pro-war would be even more absurd.

Team Trump’s grievances that Pope Leo’s humanitarian concerns seem to extend only as far as the US do have some substance, however. While he has openly criticised US foreign and domestic policy, including the US’s treatment of immigrants held in detention, he takes a far more cautious approach with China – a nation undeniably mired in human-rights violations. Beyond declining to comment on the 20-year imprisonment of Catholic media mogul Jimmy Lai in Hong Kong, the Pope currently oversees the renewed Vatican-China deal: a provisional agreement that allows Beijing to propose bishops. Though this was intended to end the persecution of Catholics in China, many argue that it has increased the pressure on churches to declare allegiance to the Chinese Communist Party. It is unclear how many loyal ‘underground’ bishops have since been forced into retirement in favour of government-approved clergy.

But these are not the arguments that Trump made. It seems his only real gripe is that the Pope refuses to smile and nod along to his every move. American Catholics – who comprise both 20 per cent of the US population and 22 per cent of those who cast their vote for Trump in 2024 – will no doubt be baffled by Trump’s attacks on the pontiff. Moreover, his AI-powered Jesus impersonation managed to upset even the most enthusiastic of evangelical MAGA loyalists. A whopping 80 per cent of Trump’s voter base is Chrisitan, after all. And while many would have leapt at the chance to undermine the papacy, not everyone found his literal imitation of Christ amusing. (‘I thought it was me as a doctor’, Trump later told the press when asked why he had generated an image of himself as the Messiah. ‘Only the fake news would come up with that one.’)

Most damning has been the condemnation from Trump’s own allies. ‘The Pope is the head of the Catholic Church’, said Italy’s right-wing prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, following the incident. ‘It is right and normal for him to call for peace and to condemn every form of war.’ Bishop Robert Barron – a member of Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission, and widely considered the most influential Catholic in the English-speaking world – called Trump’s attack ‘inappropriate and disrespectful’. He urged ‘serious Catholics’ in the Trump administration, such as vice-president JD Vance and secretary of state Marco Rubio, to meet with Vatican officials to facilitate real dialogue.

That certainly wouldn’t involve President Trump and Pope Leo. ‘I do not look at my role as being political’, Leo remarked in the wake of the controversy. ‘I don’t want to get into a debate with him.’

There is no obligation for Trump to like the Pope, of course. Even some Catholics might not. Unfortunately, just like everyone else, the president is going to have to lump it. Chicago-born Leo may be famous for his devotion to the White Sox, but in this instance, he isn’t willing to play ball.

Georgina Mumford is a content producer at spiked.