‘Not a fan’: Trump launches extraordinary attack on Pope Leo as rift deepens over war
US President Donald Trump delivered an extraordinary broadside against Pope Leo on Sunday night, saying he did not think the US-born global leader of the Catholic Church was “doing a very good job” and that “he’s a very liberal person”, while also suggesting the pontiff should “stop catering to the Radical Left”.
Flying back to Washington from Florida, Trump used a lengthy social media post to sharply criticise Leo, then kept it up after deplaning, in comments on the tarmac to reporters.
“I’m not a fan of Pope Leo,” he said.
Trump’s comments came after Leo suggested over the weekend that a “delusion of omnipotence” was fuelling the US-Israel war in Iran. While it was not unusual for popes and presidents to be at cross purposes, it was exceedingly rare for the pope to directly criticise a US leader – and Trump’s stinging response was equally uncommon, if not more so.
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“Pope Leo is WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy,” the president wrote in his post, adding: “I don’t want a Pope who thinks it’s OK for Iran to have a Nuclear Weapon”.