The open feud between President Donald Trump and Pope Leo XIV has plunged the country into a novel phenomenon, marking a new low for the Vatican’s relationship with the United States.
There are many firsts of the Trump-Leo feud. It features the first American pope, born in Chicago; the U.S.’s first Catholic vice president, JD Vance, who backed Trump against the Vatican on Tuesday, despite tying his faith to his political identity and writing a book about his conversion to Catholicism; and the Iran war, which sparked the largest disruption to the global energy supply in history.
Clashes between presidents and the Vatican have been recorded since the Progressive Era, when President Theodore Roosevelt canceled a meeting with Pope Pius X. And, as with Leo’s criticism of Washington’s attacks on Iran, the catalyst of the latest altercation, popes have long frowned on modern warfare.
Pius condemned World War I as a “ghastly scourge.” Pope Paul VI is said to have held an “acrimonious” private meeting with President Richard Nixon, decrying the Vietnam War. Pope John Paul II chastised the Iraq War during President George W. Bush’s tenure in the White House. Past presidents typically took the Vatican’s criticisms in stride. Roosevelt offered “the heartiest goodwill and sympathy between sincere and honest men of different faiths.” Bush bestowed on John Paul II the Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor.
But the increasingly severe rhetoric and public, direct grievances aired in recent weeks between Trump and Leo are no “elegant row,” as Roosevelt described his skirmish with Pius.
“I don’t want a Pope who thinks it’s OK for Iran to have a Nuclear Weapon,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social, calling Leo “terrible” for foreign policy. “I don’t want a Pope who criticizes the President of the United States because I’m doing exactly what I was elected, IN A LANDSLIDE, to do.”
The budding war of words between the president and the pope differentiates itself from past bickering as politicians have traditionally directed criticism toward the Catholic Church as a whole, with disagreements between the Vatican and Washington typically centered on social issues, such as abortion and same-sex marriage. Trump has diverged in both aspects, attacking Leo with personal criticism and denouncing the pope’s worldview in blunt terms.
“He wasn’t on any list to be Pope, and was only put there by the Church because he was an American, and they thought that would be the best way to deal with President Donald J. Trump,” the president said. “If I wasn’t in the White House, Leo wouldn’t be in the Vatican. Leo 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.”
Notably, both Trump and Leo have escalated the conflict, diverging from past papal-political feuds, when parties involved were typically more oblique or backed off on attacks. For instance, in 2016, Trump and Pope Francis clashed over immigration, but the president ended up papering over their differences.
This time around, both men are leaning into the feud, triggering national criticism and even the defense of Leo by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Doctrine. The situation is also unique in that, as the first American pope, Leo’s voice is viewed as holding particular weight in the U.S., adding another layer to the conflict. Americans viewed him positively by a sweeping majority in an NBC News poll released last month.
In an unusual move for the typically reserved papacy, Leo called out Trump directly in late March, calling on him to seek an “off-ramp” in the Iran war. He went on to slam Trump in early April in response to the president’s warning that “a whole civilization will die” in Iran if the regime did not make a peace deal with the U.S.
“Today, as we all know, there was this threat against all the people of Iran. This is truly unacceptable,” Leo said outside his home south of Rome in Castel Gandolfo.
Trump stood by the statement, saying that “When I talk about civilization, it will be much different, because their military will be totally gone,” and arguing that the threat helped trigger a ceasefire.
This week, Leo again sent a direct message to Trump.
“I have no fear of the Trump administration, or speaking out loudly of the message of the Gospel, which is what I believe I am here to do, what the church is here to do,” he told reporters on Monday. “We are not politicians, we don’t deal with foreign policy with the same perspective he might understand it, but I do believe in the message of the gospel, as a peacemaker.”
Trump has likewise refused to back off. On Tuesday, he asked “someone please tell Pope Leo” that the Iran war is necessary to keep the regime from obtaining nuclear weapons, and that the country has killed “42,000 innocent, completely unarmed, protesters in the last two months.”
TRUMP SAYS IRAN HASN’T STOPPED NEGOTIATING, WILL GIVE US ‘EVERYTHING WE WANT’
On Monday, he dismissed a reporter who asked if he would apologize to the pope.
“No, because Pope Leo said things that were wrong. He was very much against what I’m doing with regard to Iran,” Trump said. “He’s weak on crime. He went public. I’m just responding to Pope Leo. There’s nothing to apologize for.”