Trump harangues ‘weak’ Pope in social media tirade

The president’s Truth Social post appeared shortly after CBS aired an interview featuring three US cardinals who criticised Trump’s foreign policy and his domestic mass deportation campaign.

President Donald Trump took to social media on 12 April to publish a scathing attack on Pope Leo XIV, calling the first US-born pontiff “terrible on Foreign Policy” and claiming that his pontificate is hurting the Church.

“I don’t want a Pope who thinks it’s OK for Iran to have a Nuclear Weapon,” Trump posted to his Truth Social platform just after 9 p.m. EST.

“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,” Trump wrote.

Trump made similar comments later that evening to reporters who gathered at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, where Trump said he was “not a big fan” of the Pope, whom he said was “a very liberal person” who “doesn’t believe in stopping crime”.

The president’s post came shortly after 60 Minutes aired an interview featuring three US cardinals who criticised Trump’s foreign policy and his domestic mass deportation campaign.

In the segment, CBS News journalist Norah O’Donnell said that Leo had become “increasingly outspoken” against the Trump administration’s policies, presenting the Pope as a voice of moral opposition to the war in Iran and the administration’s immigration enforcement.

In his post on Truth Social, which appeared almost immediately after the broadcast, Trump took credit for Leo’s election.

“Leo should be thankful because, as everyone knows, he was a shocking surprise,” Trump wrote. “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.”

Trump also accused the Pope of being “WEAK on crime”.

“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!”

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