Donald Trump resumes his criticism of Pope Leo. After a few days of silence, in a post on Truth Social the U.S. president wrote: “Someone should explain to the Pope that the mayor of Chicago is useless and that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.”
Accompanying his post, Trump reshared photos originally posted on his X account by Democrat Brandon Johnson, who was received in the Vatican two days earlier by Pope Leo XIV, who was born in Chicago. “It was an honor to share time with a magnificent human being, His Holiness Pope Leo XIV,” Johnson wrote, also posting images of Prevost’s prayer during an interfaith gathering.
Trump’s latest attack came the same day Pope Leo XIV led a prayer for peace in the Vatican gardens. During a rosary, Prevost said that peace is “neither a naive illusion nor a matter to be managed for self-interest,” and called for “the craving for power and the violence of words” to give way to a “thirst for justice and truth.”
Previous attacks
The most recent previous attack by the U.S. president on Pope Leo XIV took place on May 5, two days after Secretary of State Marco Rubio visited the Vatican in an effort to mend the fallout from earlier harsh remarks. Trump accused the Pope of “putting many Catholics and many people in danger.” He reiterated that Leo XIV “prefers to speak about how it would be acceptable for Iran to have a nuclear weapon; I don’t think that’s a good thing.”
Earlier criticisms had come when Trump called the Pontiff “weak,” sharply criticizing his foreign and security policy positions. Those remarks followed the Pope’s appeals for peace. Trump said he was “not a big fan” of Leo XIV, accused him of being “very liberal” and of not adequately supporting efforts to combat crime, even implying that the Pope’s election had been indirectly aided by his own presence in the White House.
The tone of the attacks has gone beyond mere political disagreement. In a lengthy statement, the president said the Pope should “focus on being a great Pope, not a politician,” accusing him of harming the Church with his public positions.