Trump attacked Pope Leo XIV on social media Sunday, saying the first American pope should “stop catering to the Radical Left.”
It was an extraordinary broadside against the global leader of the Catholic Church, exacerbating a feud that began over the war in Iran.
A short time later, speaking to reporters after Air Force One landed outside Washington from Florida, Trump said, “We don’t like a pope who says it’s OK to have a nuclear weapon.”
“I don’t think he’s doing a very good job,” Trump said, adding that “I’m not a fan of Pope Leo.”
Trump’s comments followed Leo having denounced over the weekend the “delusion of omnipotence” that is fueling the U.S.-Israel war in Iran and demanded political leaders stop and negotiate peace.
The U.S.-born pope didn’t mention the United States or Trump by name in his prayer.
But Leo’s tone and message appeared directed at Trump and U.S. officials, who have boasted of U.S. military superiority and justified the war in religious terms.
Source: AP news
