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WASHINGTON – On Sunday, President Donald Trump launched a social media offensive against Pope Leo XIV, urging the first American pope to “stop catering to the Radical Left.”
This pointed critique on social media intensified an ongoing dispute between the two leaders that originated from their differing views on the conflict in Iran.
“Pope Leo is WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy,” Trump stated in his online post, marking a significant escalation in their public disagreement.
Following his comments, Trump addressed reporters upon arriving at Joint Base Andrews via Air Force One.
“I don’t think he’s doing a very good job,” Trump remarked, further clarifying his stance by stating, “I’m not a fan of Pope Leo.”
Trump’s post followed Leo having denounced over the weekend the “delusion of omnipotence” that is fueling the U.S.-Israel war in Iran and demanded political leaders stop and negotiate peace.
Leo presided over an evening prayer service in St. Peter’s Basilica on the same day the United States and Iran began face-to-face negotiations in Pakistan during a fragile ceasefire.
The U.S.-born pope didn’t mention the United States or Trump by name in his prayer. But Leo’s tone and message appeared directed at Trump and U.S. officials, who have boasted of U.S. military superiority and justified the war in religious terms.
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