President Donald Trump continued his war of words with Pope Leo, requesting that the pontiff be reminded of the thousands of innocent protesters killed by the Iranian regime after nationwide protests in the country in January. The president used the murders as a basis for reasoning that Iran should not be allowed to have a nuclear weapon, information that Trump wanted relayed to the pope. He made the comments on his Truth Social account late Tuesday night.
“Will someone please tell Pope Leo that Iran has killed at least 42,000 innocent, completely unarmed, protesters in the last two months, and that for Iran to have a Nuclear Bomb is absolutely unacceptable,” said Trump.
The actual number of protesters killed by the Iranian government remains unknown. Multiple human rights organizations have speculated on the number of deaths, with estimates varying from several thousand to tens of thousands. In January, the Human Rights Activists News Agency claimed there were 4,902 protesters killed.
An initial estimate provided by Iranian doctors listed the number of fatalities at 16,500, while Time reported two senior officials of Iran’s Ministry of Health cited the 30,000 fatalities figure. By late January, Iran International claimed over 36,500 people were killed in the crackdown, according to “documents reviewed by Iran International’s Editorial Board.”
Trump’s post about Pope Leo on Tuesday follows several days of controversy for the president, who has drawn both criticism and support for his social media post criticizing the head of the Catholic Church. Trump said the pope was “weak on crime and terrible for foreign policy” in a Truth Social post on Sunday night, a week after Easter, the holiest day in the Catholic Church.
“Pope Leo is WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy,” said Trump. “He talks about ‘fear’ of the Trump Administration, but doesn’t mention the FEAR that the Catholic Church, and all other Christian Organizations, had during COVID when they were arresting priests, ministers, and everybody else, for holding Church Services, even when going outside, and being ten and even twenty feet apart. I like his brother Louis much better than I like him, because Louis is all MAGA. He gets it, and Leo doesn’t!”
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Pope Leo later dismissed Trump’s criticism, stating that he was not interested in debating with the president and instead, focused on striving for peace and spreading the message of the Gospel.
“I am not a politician, and I do not want to enter into a debate with him,” Leo said.
“I do not think the message of the Gospel should be abused as some are doing,” the pontiff said on Monday. “I continue to speak strongly against war, seeking to promote peace, dialogue, and multilateralism among states to find solutions to problems. Too many people are suffering today, too many innocent lives have been lost, and I believe someone must stand up and say there is a better way.”