Pope Leo and Trump are feuding. It’s not the first time the president has clashed with a pontiff – CNN Politics

April 14, 2026

Politics, 5 min read

Trump is feuding with a pope — again. Why it’s different this time

Analysis by Aaron Blake, 3 hr ago

Pope Leo XIV arrives at the Presidential Palace in Algiers, Algeria, on Monday, during a trip in which he will visit four African countries. Luca Zennaro / Pool/Reuters

Few demographics were more important to President Donald Trump’s 2024 win than Catholics. While Catholics usually split close to 50-50, the data shows Trump won between 55%and 59% of them — apparently the most of any presidential candidate in decades.

Just 17 months later, Trump is clashing with a pope … again.

This time, it might have a more lasting impact.

Trump went on to win the 2016 election after a brief spat with Pope Francis. But his new dispute with Pope Leo XIV is different.

What happened

Late Sunday, Trump lashed out at Pope Leo’s criticisms of the Iran war in a lengthy social media post, which:

Called the pope “WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy.”
Claimed Leo was only elected pope “because he was an American, and they thought that would be the best way to deal with President Donald J. Trump.”
Said 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.”
Said Leo was hurting the Catholic Church.

A member of Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission, Bishop Robert Barron, called the post “entirely inappropriate and disrespectful” and said “the President owes the Pope an apology.”

Trump then took things to a whole new level by posting an apparently AI-generated fake image depicting himself as a Christ-like figure healing a sick person.

Editor’s Note: That fake image is taken down off Truth Social, but added below for those who wish to see this childish Trump fake.

It’s an image that many critics, including some who supported Trump, like the Knights Templar International, labeled blasphemous. Trump later deleted the post and on Monday claimed he thought it depicted him as a doctor, which it did not. (“I don’t know too many doctors that have glowing hands,” Father James Martin, a Jesuit priest, quipped to CNN.”)

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