US President Donald Trump has feuded with Pope Leo XIV over the Iran conflict — setting off an unholy row that could have serious political implications for the Republican leader back in the US.
Trump has drawn barbs even from some allies over the attacks on the US-born pontiff, who has criticized the Trump administration over its immigration crackdown, the intervention in Venezuela and the Iran war.
The president risks alienating the religious right in November’s crucial US midterm elections.
Photo: Reuters
So far the unprecedented clash between the leader of the most powerful military on Earth and the head of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics shows no signs of abating.
“There’s nothing to apologize for. He’s wrong,” 79-year-old Trump told reporters at the White House on Monday.
In the post on Sunday, Trump called the pontiff “WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy,” suggesting that Leo was elected pope in May last year only because he was American and a possible bridge to the Trump administration.
Trump then posted an artificial intelligence-generated image seemingly depicting himself as a figure like Jesus Christ, which he later deleted. He insisted on Monday that he believed the image showed himself as a doctor.
For his part, Pope Leo told reporters on the papal plane en route to Africa earlier on Monday that he has “no fear, neither of the Trump administration nor speaking out loudly about the message of the Gospel.”
Leo had earlier this month branded Trump’s threat to destroy a “whole civilization” in Iran as “truly unacceptable.”
The pope has also previously criticized Trump’s mass deportation campaign as “inhuman.”
Three-time-married billionaire Trump has long reached out to the US’ evangelical Christians with his conservative, nativist vision.
They backed him in his election wins in 2016 and 2024, despite a series of scandals and an ambiguous personal relationship with religion, but Trump, who has previously hawked US$60 Bibles branded with his name, appeared to have had something of an awakening during his second term.
At his inauguration last year he said that he had been “saved by God” after a 2024 assassination attempt on the campaign trail and has taken a more explicitly religious tone.
Yet over the Easter period, which is sacred to Christians, Trump has made a series of eye-opening posts when it comes to religion.
On the morning of Easter Sunday, as Christians were celebrating around the world, Trump posted a profanity-laced warning to the “crazy bastards” of Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz or else — bizarrely signing off: “Praise be to Allah.”
Then, amid what appeared to be increasing frustration after talks with Iran produced no breakthrough, came Sunday’s attacks on Pope Leo.
“I am disheartened that the president chose to write such disparaging words about the Holy Father,” head of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, Archbishop Paul Coakley, said in a statement.
At least one prominent Catholic in Trump’s administration backed the US president over the pontiff. US Vice President J.D. Vance, a recent convert, told Fox News on Monday, “in some cases, it would be best for the Vatican to stick to matters of morality ... and let the President of the United States stick to dictating American public policy.”
There was no immediate reaction from US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is also Catholic.
Perhaps more worrying for the White House is the ire on the religious right, particularly among former allies.
Any slackening of support for Trump would add to concerns among Republicans that they could lose control of the US Congress in November’s midterm elections, with the economy already a worry amid high oil prices caused by the Iran war.
“On Orthodox Easter, President Trump attacked the Pope because the Pope is rightly against Trump’s war in Iran and then he posted this picture of himself as if he is replacing Jesus,” one-time ally and former US representative Marjorie Taylor-Greene said. “This comes after last week’s post of his evil tirade on Easter and then threatening to kill an entire civilization. I completely denounce this and I’m praying against it.”
Conservative commentator Riley Gaines also railed against the apparent Jesus image.
“Seriously, I cannot understand why he’d post this,” Gaines said on social media, urging Trump to show humility and adding: “God shall not be mocked.”
School bullies in Singapore are to face caning under new guidelines, but the education minister on Tuesday said it would be meted out only as a last resort with strict safeguards. Human rights groups regularly criticize Singapore for the use of corporal punishment, which remains part of the school and criminal justice systems, but authorities have defended it as a deterrent to crime and serious misconduct. Caning was discussed in the parliament after legislators asked how it would be used in relation to bullying in schools. The debate followed stricter guidelines on serious student misconduct, including bullying, unveiled by the Singaporean Ministry of
As evening falls in Fiji’s capital, a steady stream of people approaches a makeshift clinic that is a first line of defense against one of the world’s fastest-growing HIV epidemics. In the South Pacific nation — a popular tourist destination of just under a million people — more than 2,000 new HIV cases were recorded last year, a 26 percent increase from 2024. The government has declared an HIV outbreak and described it as a national crisis. “It’s spreading like wildfire,” said Siteri Dinawai, 46, who came to be tested. The Moonlight Clinic, a converted minibus parked in a suburban cul-de-sac in Suva, is
A MESSAGE: Japan’s participation in the Balikatan drills is a clear deterrence signal to China not to attack Taiwan while the US is busy in the Middle East, an analyst said The Japan Self-Defense Forces yesterday fired a Type 88 anti-ship missile during a joint maritime exercise with US, Australian and Philippine forces, hitting a decommissioned Philippine Navy ship in waters facing the disputed South China Sea, in drills that underscore Tokyo’s rising willingness to project military power on China’s doorstep. The drill took place as Manila and Tokyo began talks on a potential defense equipment transfer, made possible by Japan’s decision to scrap restrictions on military exports. The discussions include the possible early transfer of Abukuma-class destroyers and TC-90 aircraft to the Philippines, Japanese Minister of Defense Shinjiro Koizumi said. Philippine Secretary of
A South Korean judge who last week more than doubled former South Korean first lady Kim Keon-hee’s prison sentence was found dead yesterday, police said. Shin Jong-o was found unconscious at about 1am at the Seoul High Court building, an investigator at the Seocho District Police Station in Seoul said. Shin was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead, he said. “There is no sign of foul play in the death,” the investigator added. Local media reported that Shin had left a suicide note, but the investigator said there was none. On Tuesday last week, Shin presided over 53-year-old Kim’s appeal trial, finding her guilty
RSS