About an hour after 60 Minutes did a segment on Pope Leo and U.S. cardinals opposing Donald Trump‘s Iran war and immigration policies, the president posted a Truth Social tirade about the Holy Father.
In a rare and perhaps unprecedented attack by a president on the leader of the Catholic church, Trump called Leo “weak on crime” and “terrible for foreign policy,” and suggested that the pontiff was chosen to “deal with” his presidency.
Trump posted, “If I wasn’t in the White House, Leo wouldn’t be in the Vatican.”
He added, “I don’t want a Pope who criticizes the President of the United States because I’m doing exactly what I was elected, IN A LANDSLIDE, to do, setting Record Low Numbers in Crime, and creating the Greatest Stock Market in History.”
After posting the attack, Trump told reporters, “I don’t think he’s doing a very good job. He likes crime I guess.”
This past week, Leo condemned Trump’s threat on Tuesday that a “whole civilization will die tonight” unless Iran agreed to a deal to end the war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz. The pope not only called the remark “truly unacceptable,” but urged people to “contact the authorities — political leaders, congressmen — to ask them, tell them to work for peace and to reject war always.” It’s been nearly a year since Robert Prevost became the first American chosen as Pope.
After Trump’s post, Father James Martin, a Jesuit priest and editor at large of America magazine, posted on X, “I doubt Pope Leo XIV will lose any sleep over this, before he begins his pilgrimage to Africa tomorrow. But the rest of us should. Because it is unhinged, uncharitable and unchristian. Is there no bottom to this moral squalor?”
The 60 Minutes segment featured Norah O’Donnell’s interview with Cardinal Joseph Tobin of Newark, Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago and Cardinal Robert McElroy of Washington.
McElroy said of Iran, “It’s an abominable regime, and it should be removed. But this is a war of choice that we went to, and I think it’s embedded in a wider moment in the United States that’s worrying, which is this: We’re seeing before us the possibility of war after war after war.”
Cupich has called the White House social media posts on the war — which intersperse clips of bombings with scenes from movies — “sickening.”
Tobin, meanwhile, has called Immigrations and Custom Enforcement a “lawless organization.”
The segment also highlighted Leo’s outspokenness on the war and his embrace of migrants, putting him at odds with the Trump administration. The 60 Minutes segment noted that after Leo spoke out against Trump’s military action in Venezuela, the Vatican’s ambassador to the U.S. was called to the Pentagon for a meeting.
“Two church officials described to 60 Minutes as unpleasant and contentious,” O’Donnell said.
Last week, The Free Press, founded by CBS News editor in chief Bari Weiss, reported that at the meeting, a Pentagon official referred to the “Avignon papacy,” or a period in the 14th Century when the pope resided in France under pressure from the king, King Philip IV.
60 Minutes noted that the Pentagon and Vatican have since called the meeting “routine” and “provided an opportunity for an exchange of ideas.”
The 60 Minutes segment also noted an uptick in converts to Catholicism in the U.S., something Tobin attributed to Leo’s papacy. “Pope Leo is the right man at this time,” he said.
Trump’s full post below:
“Pope Leo is WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy. He talks about “fear” of the Trump Administration, but doesn’t mention the FEAR that the Catholic Church, and all other Christian Organizations, had during COVID when they were arresting priests, ministers, and everybody else, for holding Church Services, even when going outside, and being ten and even twenty feet apart. I like his brother Louis much better than I like him, because Louis is all MAGA. He gets it, and Leo doesn’t! I don’t want a Pope who thinks it’s OK for Iran to have a Nuclear Weapon. I don’t want a Pope who thinks it’s terrible that America attacked Venezuela, a Country that was sending massive amounts of Drugs into the United States and, even worse, emptying their prisons, including murderers, drug dealers, and killers, into our Country. And I don’t want a Pope who criticizes the President of the United States because I’m doing exactly what I was elected, IN A LANDSLIDE, to do, setting Record Low Numbers in Crime, and creating the Greatest Stock Market in History. Leo should be thankful because, as everyone knows, he was a shocking surprise. He wasn’t on any list to be Pope, and was only put there by the Church because he was an American, and they thought that would be the best way to deal with President Donald J. Trump. If I wasn’t in the White House, Leo wouldn’t be in the Vatican. Unfortunately, Leo’s Weak on Crime, Weak on Nuclear Weapons, does not sit well with me, nor does the fact that he meets with Obama Sympathizers like David Axelrod, a LOSER from the Left, who is one of those who wanted churchgoers and clerics to be arrested. 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. It’s hurting him very badly and, more importantly, it’s hurting the Catholic Church! President DONALD J. TRUMP”
Later, Trump also posted a Christ-like image of himself.
