The president’s back-and-forth with Pope Leo is not the first time he has clashed with a pope.
Though Trump praised Pope Francis following his death on April 21, 2025, and attended his funeral, the two had previously clashed, dating back to before Trump’s first presidential term.
In February 2016, Francis said of then-candidate Trump’s promise to build a border wall: “A person who only thinks about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not Christian.”
Trump responded by saying it’s “disgraceful” for the Catholic leader to question his faith and called Francis “a pawn” for the Mexican government.
But after taking office, Trump met with Francis at the Vatican in May 2017, and despite the meme-able picture where the pope looks very glum, Trump called it a “fantastic meeting” and the “honor of a lifetime.”
More recently, in February 2025, Francis sent a letter to U.S. bishops criticizing Trump’s mass deportation policy.
“The act of deporting people who in many cases have left their own land for reasons of extreme poverty, insecurity, exploitation, persecution or serious deterioration of the environment, damages the dignity of many men and women, and of entire families, and places them in a state of particular vulnerability and defenselessness,” he wrote.
Francis went on to say: “I exhort all the faithful of the Catholic Church, and all men and women of good will, not to give in to narratives that discriminate against and cause unnecessary suffering to our migrant and refugee brothers and sisters.”
In the weeks following, Vice President JD Vance — a Catholic himself — acknowledged his disagreements with the pope while still expressing his respect for the leader.
Vance met with Francis on Easter Sunday 2025, the day before Francis’ death.