US President Donald Trump has attacked Pope Leo XIV, head of the worldwide Catholic Church, saying the first American pope should “stop catering to the Radical Left.”
It was an extraordinary broadside against one of the most influential religious leaders of the world, and the global leader of the Catholic Church, exacerbating a feud that began over the war in Iran.
“Pope Leo is WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy,” the US president wrote on social media.
Soon afterward, he spoke to reporters at Joint Base Andrews on Sunday, where he landed on Air Force One.
“I don’t think he’s doing a very good job,” Trump said, adding that “I’m not a fan of Pope Leo.”
"I don’t want a Pope who thinks it’s OK for Iran to have a Nuclear Weapon,” the US president said.
“Delusion of omnipotence”
Trump’s outburst followed Pope Leo, who had denounced over the weekend the “delusion of omnipotence” that is fueling the US-Israel war in Iran and demanded that political leaders stop and negotiate peace.
The pope presided over an evening prayer service in St. Peter’s Basilica on the same day the United States and Iran began face-to-face negotiations in Pakistan during a fragile ceasefire.
The US-born pope didn’t mention the United States or Trump by name in his prayer. But his tone and message appeared directed at Trump and US officials.
