{"id":527956,"date":"2026-04-13T05:03:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T05:03:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/527956\/"},"modified":"2026-04-13T05:03:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T05:03:07","slug":"donald-trump-launches-extraordinary-attack-on-pope-leo-calling-him-weak-and-terrible-pope-leo-xiv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/527956\/","title":{"rendered":"Donald Trump launches extraordinary attack on Pope Leo calling him \u2018weak\u2019 and \u2018terrible\u2019 | Pope Leo XIV"},"content":{"rendered":"

President Donald Trump<\/a> delivered an extraordinary broadside against Pope Leo XIV on Sunday night, saying he didn\u2019t think the US-born leader of the Catholic church is \u201cdoing a very good job\u201d and that \u201che\u2019s a very liberal person,\u201d while also suggesting the pontiff should \u201cstop catering to the Radical Left.\u201d<\/p>\n

Flying back to Washington from Florida, Trump used a lengthy social media post to sharply criticise Leo, then kept it up in comments on the tarmac to reporters.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not a fan of Pope Leo,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s comments came after Leo suggested over the weekend that a \u201cdelusion of omnipotence\u201d was fuelling the US-Israel war in Iran<\/a>. While it\u2019s not unusual for popes and presidents to be at cross purposes, it\u2019s exceedingly rare for the pope to criticise a US leader \u2013 and Trump\u2019s stinging response is equally uncommon.<\/p>\n

\u201cPope Leo is WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy,\u201d the president wrote in his post, adding, \u201cI don\u2019t want a Pope who thinks it\u2019s OK for Iran to have a Nuclear Weapon.\u201d<\/p>\n

He repeated that sentiment in comments to reporters, saying, \u201cWe don\u2019t like a pope who says it\u2019s OK to have a nuclear weapon.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leo presided over an evening prayer service in St Peter\u2019s Basilica on Saturday, the same day the United States and Iran began face-to-face negotiations in Pakistan during a fragile ceasefire. The pope didn\u2019t mention the United States or Trump by name, but his tone and message appeared directed at Trump and US officials<\/a>, who have boasted of US military superiority and justified the war in religious terms.<\/p>\n

The pope \u2013 who is scheduled to leave Monday for an 11-day trip to Africa \u2013 has previously said that God \u201cdoes not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them.\u201d He\u2019s also referenced an Old Testament passage from Isaiah, saying that \u201ceven though you make many prayers, I will not listen \u2013 your hands are full of blood.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before the ceasefire, when Trump warned of mass strikes against Iranian power plants and other infrastructure<\/a> and that \u201can entire civilization will die tonight,\u201d Leo described such sentiments as \u201ctruly unacceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n

In his social media post on Sunday night, however, Trump went far beyond the war in Iran in criticising Leo.<\/p>\n

The president wrote, \u201cI don\u2019t want a Pope who thinks it\u2019s terrible that America attacked Venezuela, a Country that was sending massive amounts of Drugs into the United States.\u201d That was a reference to the Trump administration having ousted Venezuelan president Nicol\u00e1s Maduro<\/a> in January.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want a Pope who criticizes the President of the United States because I\u2019m doing exactly what I was elected, IN A LANDSLIDE, to do,\u201d Trump added, referencing his 2024 election victory.<\/p>\n

He also suggested in the post that Leo only got his position \u201cbecause he was an American, and they thought that would be the best way to deal with President Donald J. Trump.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I wasn\u2019t in the White House, Leo wouldn\u2019t be in the Vatican,\u201d Trump wrote, adding, \u201cLeo 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. It\u2019s hurting him very badly and, more importantly, it\u2019s hurting the Catholic Church!\u201d<\/p>\n

In his subsequent comments to reporters, Trump remained highly critical, saying \u201cI don\u2019t think he\u2019s doing a very good job. He likes crime I guess\u201d and adding, \u201cHe\u2019s a very liberal person.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the 2024 election, Trump won 55% of Catholic voters, according to AP VoteCast, an extensive survey of the electorate. But Trump\u2019s administration also has close ties to conservative evangelical Protestant leaders and has claimed heavenly endorsement for the war on Iran.<\/p>\n

Defense secretary Pete Hegseth urged Americans to pray for victory \u201cin the name of Jesus Christ.\u201d And, when Trump was asked whether he thought God approved of the war, he said, \u201cI do, because God is good \u2013 because God is good and God wants to see people taken care of.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"President Donald Trump delivered an extraordinary broadside against Pope Leo XIV on Sunday night, saying he didn\u2019t think…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":527957,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-527956","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=527956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527956\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/527957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=527956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=527956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=527956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}