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US President Donald Trump said Sunday that he is “not a big fan” of Pope Leo XIV, following the pontiff’s recent appeal for peace amid the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.
Speaking to worshippers at St Peter’s Basilica on Saturday, the 70-year-old pope had railed against violence in the Middle East, declaring: “Enough of the idolatry of self and money! Enough of the display of power! Enough of war!”
Responding from Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, Trump told reporters, “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 also accused Pope Leo of “toying with a country that wants a nuclear weapon.”
Trump later posted on Truth Social, saying, “I don’t want a Pope who thinks it’s OK for Iran to have a Nuclear Weapon. Pope Leo is WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy.”
He also claimed that Leo was elected pope “because he was an American, and they thought that would be the best way to deal with President Donald J. Trump.”
Trump added, “If I wasn’t in the White House, Leo wouldn’t be in the Vatican.”
Following these comments, Trump posted an AI-generated image depicting himself as Jesus Christ.
The image shows Trump in red-and-white robes, with a healing hand extended toward a man, the American flag visible over his shoulder.
Trump and the White House have previously shared AI-generated images, including one showing the president dressed as the pope.
Both Washington and the Vatican have denied reports of a disagreement between the two parties.
On Friday, a Vatican official rejected a report from the Free Press that claimed a top Pentagon official gave Cardinal Christophe Pierre, the Church’s envoy to the United States, a “bitter lecture” over Pope Leo’s criticisms of the Trump administration.
The Pentagon had previously dismissed the story as “distorted.”
According to the report, Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby told the cardinal that the United States “has the military power to do whatever it wants — and that the Church had better take its side.”
Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said in a statement that “the account presented by certain media outlets regarding this meeting does not correspond to the truth in any way.”
Despite both parties describing the meeting as cordial, the Holy See and the White House have publicly disagreed on several policy issues.
The pope has called the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign “inhuman,” and the two have differing positions on the use of military force in the Middle East and Venezuela.
On Tuesday, Trump stated about Iran, “A whole civilisation will die tonight, never to be brought back again.”
The pontiff called that statement “truly unacceptable” and urged parties to return to negotiations.
