His Holiness the Pope publicly disagreed with the President of the United States. The Pope is the leader of Catholics, and around 55% of all Christians are Catholic. In 2025, Robert Prevost was elected pope and took the name ‘Leo XIV’. He is the first American ever elected pope, and it is an office held for life. The man from Chicago seemed to have good chemistry when he met President Donald J Trump for the first time last year. The Pope went out of his way to laud Trump for opposing the killing of children in the womb. It is suspected by some that the College of Cardinals elected Leo XIV precisely because of his nationality. They reasoned that, with a hyper-nationalist in the White House, good relations between the Catholic Church and the US Government would be ensured if an American were pope.
Donald J Trump publicly rebuked Pope Leo XIV, calling him weak. Popes do not profess to be ‘strong’ in the way Trump would understand. Trump appears to conflate cruelty with strength. What is truly strong is to stand up for peace and humanitarianism when bigots and warmongers insult one for speaking truth to power.
An influential Catholic bishop in Texas went so far as to say that the war against Iran is unjust. Though the Catholic Church teaches that leaders must strive for peace, it rarely takes the step of opposing a particular war, usually leaving such judgments to politicians. There are Catholics who support the war in principle or remain neutral but recognise that the methods used to wage it are immoral. Threatening to end Iranian civilisation is genocidal.
President Trump said that Pope Leo is weak on crime. The Pope is both a political and a religious leader. Vatican City is an independent country—the smallest in the world, less than one square kilometre, with a population of about 800. It issues its own passports, maintains diplomatic missions, signs treaties, and has its own army of around 50 men, along with a police force, a legislature, and its own laws. Nevertheless, the Pope has said that he does not view himself as a political leader. He does not take sides in partisan politics, nor does he tell Catholics to vote for or against any candidate. In such a tiny state, crime is scarcely an issue. The fact that the Pope maintains an army (the Swiss Guard) suggests that he recognises that war may occasionally be justified.
Pope Leo XIV has said that he is a man of peace, and he has urged world leaders to end all fighting and to find better means of resolving their disagreements. Catholicism is not pacifist, but it teaches that war must be a last resort, waged by just means, for a just cause, and only when there is a reasonable chance of success.
The Catholic Church in the United States has often castigated the Trump administration for what it perceives as harshness towards immigrants, both legal and illegal. Those arrested by immigration authorities are often from Latin America, where around 90% of the population is Catholic.
The three major denominations of Christianity are Catholicism, Protestantism, and Orthodoxy, though each contains many subdivisions. Donald J Trump identifies as a Protestant. Until he declared his intention to run for president in 2015, he had not publicly emphasised religion. Since then, he has foregrounded his religiosity.
President Trump even invited a Catholic bishop to bless his home at Mar-a-Lago, aware that some of his supporters are fervent Catholics.
A century ago, there was notable animus between Catholics and Protestants in the United States, though this has largely faded. Around 20% of Americans are Catholic, about 50% are Protestant, less than 1% belong to non-Christian religions such as Islam and Judaism, and roughly 20% identify as atheists or agnostics. A slight majority of Catholic Americans voted for Donald J Trump. Vice President J D Vance is a Catholic.
President Trump caused offence among Christians by posting an AI-generated image of himself in the guise of Jesus Christ, later remarking that it depicted him as a doctor.
Trump’s scathing remarks about Pope Leo XIV have prompted pushback from Catholics in the United States and elsewhere. Some American Catholics reminded Trump that they regard the Pope as the Vicar of Christ—the earthly representative of God. The Prime Minister of Italy, Giorgia Meloni, one of Trump’s closest allies in Europe, has also expressed disagreement with his intemperate remarks; she is a practising Catholic.
Even American Catholics who support Trump have said that the President ought to apologise to the Pope for his insults. The broader significance of the dispute lies in how closely the Catholic Church’s stance on the Iran war aligns with global opinion, thereby strengthening its position in interfaith dialogue. The Church also seeks to improve relations with Muslims. The dispute with Trump underscores the continuing importance of the Catholic Church both in the United States and globally, while the8 Pope’s position appears closer to that of the average American than Trump’s, with a majority opposing what they view as an unjust war of aggression.