April 14 2026, 08:15 
As if going to war with Iran wasn’t enough, the Trump administration has apparently chosen to go to war with the Vatican as well.
In a move that is shockingly stupid even by his own standards, Donald Trump unleashed a vicious attack on Pope Leo on Sunday. In a screed on Truth Social, Trump complained that the pope was “WEAK on crime and terrible on foreign policy,” and even took credit for the pope’s election.
Related
Pope Leo says LGBTQ+ doctrine won’t change anytime soon: “I have nothing more to add on this point”
“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, setting Record Low Numbers in Crime, and creating the Greatest Stock Market in History,” Trump groused.
Piling on while talking to reporters later, Trump said, “I’m not a fan of Pope Leo.” As a chef’s kiss to his tirade, Trump then posted an AI image of himself as Jesus Christ.
Dive deeper every day
Join our newsletter for thought-provoking commentary that goes beyond the surface of LGBTQ+ issues
Subscribe to our Newsletter today
The attack was just the latest salvo in what is an increasingly tense relationship between the White House and the Vatican.
Last week, the Free Press reported that Pentagon officials hauled the Vatican’s U.S. representative, Cardinal Christophe Pierre, into a meeting to complain that the Pope wasn’t sufficiently supportive of the administration. Both sides denied that the meeting was contentious, with a Vatican representative saying the meeting was “frank but very cordial.”
That’s a diplomatic way of saying, yep, the reporting is accurate.
Pope Leo XIV is proving to be quite the thorn in
Moreover, he is far more popular than Trump. A recent poll put him at the top of a list of public figures, including two Catholics in the administration, J.D. Vance and Marco Rubio.
When Leo became pope, the conventional wisdom was that he wouldn’t be nearly as provocative as his predecessor, Pope Francis. Francis was known for his off-the-cuff remarks that shook the conservative ranks in the Vatican, most notably his “who am I to judge?” comments about gay priests.
As it turns out, the conventional wisdom was wrong. Leo has been clearly aiming at the current administration, condemning its behavior. What infuriated the Pentagon enough to call the ambassador in for a dressing down was Leo’s comment that “a diplomacy that promotes dialogue and seeks consensus among all parties is being replaced by a diplomacy based on force.”
In the hamfisted way that is characteristic of Pete Hegseth’s Department of Defense, an official seemingly threatened the Vatican by saying the U.S. had “the power to do whatever it wants — and that the Church had better take its side,” according to the original report.
The meeting was last January, and Leo has only gotten more outspoken. In what looks like a direct slam at Hegseth’s remarks at a prayer service for “overwhelming violence against those who deserve no mercy,” the pope leveled a brutal and graphic criticism. God “does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them, saying: ‘Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen: your hands are full of blood.'”
It hasn’t stopped there. When Trump threatened to wipe Iran off the face of the map, the pope urged citizens to call their elected leaders to express their opposition. Last weekend, he took aim at Trump’s grandiose monuments to himself. “Enough with the idolatry of self and money! Enough with the display of force! Enough with war! True strength is manifested in serving life,” the pope said. Then there were the loud complaints about Trump’s treatment of immigrants, which Leo called “inhuman.”
Trump clearly despises Leo for the criticism, even if the pope didn’t mention Trump by name. “If I wasn’t in the White House, Leo wouldn’t be in the Vatican,” Trump claimed in his post, as if the president were somehow a combination of the College of Cardinals and the Holy Spirit. He also accused the pope of “catering to the Radical Left,” which will come as a surprise to anyone familiar with the Church’s LGBTQ+ policies.
Trump may also be angry that the pope refused an invitation to come to the U.S. for the celebration of the nation’s 250th anniversary. He has yet to meet with the pope, and in yet another slight, Barack Obama may actually beat him to the punch.
Underlying the administration’s antagonism toward the Vatican is the Christian nationalism that animates the second Trump term. Conservative evangelicals have been carrying the banner of Christian nationalism, but there are a significant number of Catholics who have willingly joined in. Vance, a convert, is the most visible, but he is joined by others, including Trump whisperer Steve Bannon. It will be interesting to see how Vance, who is coming out with a book about his conversion, squares his fealty to Trump with his Catholicism in light of the pope’s condemnations of the administration.
The problem for such Catholics is that you disagree with the pope at your own peril. It’s hard to square an image of yourself as a pious Catholic if you are contradicting the pope about the war. This kind of problem cuts across political lines. Joe Biden, who was a practicing Catholic, was often raked over the coals by the American bishops for his support for a woman’s right to choose. Biden didn’t attack the pope, however.
At the same time, the kind of 1950s Catholicism that the traditional Catholic movement loves doesn’t have the same backing in the Church hierarchy as it once did. In the 1980s, John Paul II set the tone for a far more conservative Church and appointed the bishops who agreed with that vision. Their numbers are dwindling.
Francis started weeding out the far-right bishops and regularly criticized “conservative” American bishops. Leo, a progressive by Vatican standards, seems to be following in his footsteps, which means the right is losing the firepower it used to get from people like former New York City Archbishop Cardinal Timothy Dolan, who all but endorsed Trump. Indeed, the same day that Trump was bashing the pope, three American cardinals were on 60 Minutes underscoring the pope’s message that the war in Iran is not a just war.
The other problem for people like Vance is that a lot of Christian nationalists don’t like Catholics in the least.
The prime example is Hegseth’s own pastor, Doug Wilson. Wilson believes that building a Christian nation, which would criminalize gay sex and repeal voting rights for women, is a “pan-Protestant project.” By definition, that would exclude Catholics. It’s no surprise that Wilson would also ban Catholic religious processions in public.
This is the form of Christianity that Hegseth has been pushing at the Pentagon. Perhaps it comes as no surprise that this year the Pentagon held only a Protestant service on Good Friday, foregoing the Catholic service that was usually held as well.
As this interfaith drama plays out, it’s worth remembering that the Catholic rank-and-file isn’t nearly as conservative as the loudest voices would have you believe. A Pew survey released last year found that almost three-quarters of Catholics support non-discrimination protections, far more than Christians in general, and a majority reject religious liberty exemptions used against gays and lesbians. (On trans issues, a majority of Catholics support bathroom laws, but also believe that trans people should have the same rights as other Americans.)
As satisfying (and justified) as the pope’s criticisms of the Trump administration are, there will come a time in the not-distant future where the Vatican and the White House are in alignment again, likely over a religious liberty issue. As such, it’s worth keeping the enthusiasm for Leo in perspective.
Meanwhile, for MAGA Catholics, the question is who is your leader: Trump or the pope. Sadly, the answer for many will still remain the former.
Subscribe to the LGBTQ Nation newsletter and be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.