Trump’s clash with Pope Leo XIV highlights long‑standing strains between the U.S. and the Vatican

Tue, 14 Apr 2026 02:53:00 +0200

President Donald Trump and Pope Leo XIV engaged in a public and unusually sharp exchange over the weekend, underscoring longstanding tensions between the White House and the Vatican. On Truth Social, Trump attacked the pope as weak on crime and ineffective on foreign policy, urging him to focus on being a great pope rather than a politician. Leo, the U.S.-born head of the Catholic Church, had earlier condemned Trump’s threat to destroy Iranian civilization as “truly unacceptable” and has repeatedly called for peace amid ongoing wars in the Middle East. Aboard his papal flight to Algeria, Leo said he does not wish to debate Trump and stressed that his role is not political, but he also declared he has no fear of the Trump administration and will continue to speak out against war and in favor of dialogue and multilateral solutions. The article notes that such friction is not new: it traces a history of anti‑Catholic suspicion in the U.S., the late establishment of formal diplomatic relat