WASHINGTON (WHDH) - President Donald Trump antagonized Pope Leo XIV Sunday both on social media and in response to questions from reporters.
Since President Trump initiated the war with Iran weeks ago, Pope Leo, the first U.S.-born pontiff in history, has criticized the military action and pushed messages of peace, tolerance, and anti-violence.
Speaking Friday, Leo said that “God does not bless any conflict” and certainly doesn’t side with those who drop bombs.
During a prayer service on Saturday, the Pope denounced the “delusion of omnipotence” that is fueling the conflict.
Taking these messages as personal criticism of himself, Trump turned to his trademark bullying tactics on his Truth Social social media platform, seemingly in attempts to intimidate the leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics, including taking personal credit for the pontiff’s election.
Speaking with reporters, Trump reiterated that he does not like the Pope.
“We don’t like a pope that’s going to say that it’s OK to have a nuclear weapon,” Trump said. “We don’t want a pope that says crime is OK in our cities. I don’t like it. I’m not a big fan of Pope Leo. He’s a very liberal person, and he’s a man that doesn’t believe in stopping crime.”
Trump later posted an AI-generated image depicting himself as Jesus Christ with heavy American symbolism in its background.
Leo pushed back on Trump’s understanding of what he has said about the war in comments to the AP.
“To put my message on the same plane as what the president has attempted to do here, I think is not understanding what the message of the Gospel is,” Leo told AP aboard the papal plane en route to Algeria. “And I’m sorry to hear that but I will continue on what I believe is the mission of the church in the world today.”
Speaking to other reporters, he added: “I have no fear of the Trump administration.”
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