Is it normal for the U.S. president to spar with the Pope?

alexander pope lion defies Trump's state of war of words by double down on peace

When U.S. President Donald Trump posted an image of himself styled as a Jesus-like figure, before deleting it hours later, it was perhaps the clearest sign yet that his attacks on the leader of the Roman Catholic Church had entered uncharted territory.

"It's unprecedented, but given Trump, not surprising," said Vatican observer Christopher White. 

The week's attacks on Pope Leo XIV began in earnest when Trump took to Truth Social to declare him "WEAK on Crime and terrible for Foreign Policy." Trump also suggested Leo only became pope because of him.

"If I wasn't in the White House, Leo wouldn't be in the Vatican," Trump wrote on Sunday evening.

The claim left Vatican observers bemused. Leo spent decades in Latin America and was widely known as the “least American of Americans” among fellow cardinals who elected him Pope last May.

Vice President JD Vance, a Catholic convert, piled on at a Turning Point USA event on Tuesday, warning the Pope to be "careful" about theology and questioning Leo's grasp of just war theory.

The admonition was ironic both in substance and timing.

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Just war theory, the centuries-old Catholic framework for determining when force is morally permissible, traces its roots to the fourth-century theologian Saint Augustine. Leo, who had led the Augustinian order before his election as Pope, was at that very moment paying personal tribute to Augustine at his birthplace in Algeria.

"There's a tendency now to avoid saying there can be a just war for fear it will be manipulated and used to say our cause is just," said longtime Vatican observer Francis X. Rocca. 

"Leo has been banging the drum hard saying, God doesn't bless any conflicts, doesn't hear the prayers of those who wage war,” Rocca said.

Leo, however, didn't blink.

"I have no fear of the Trump administration or speaking out loudly of the message of the gospel, which is what I believe I am here to do," he told reporters on the papal plane on Monday.

The Pope said he didn't want to debate Trump because "too many people are suffering in the world today. Too many innocent people are being killed. And I think someone has to stand up and say: There's a better way to do this."

Six months ago, none of this seemed remotely plausible. At the time, Vatican journalists here in Rome were quietly resigning themselves to a dull papacy.

Leo had seemed almost excessively measured when compared with his predecessor Francis, who had a knack for off-the-cuff remarks that sent reporters scrambling to parse meaning.

Not long ago, Rocca dubbed him "the quiet American," an assessment he now calls obsolete since Leo, along with American bishops, began speaking out against Trump's immigration policy and ICE crackdowns.

With the U.S. And Israel-Iran war, the pope’s condemnation has become more pointed. He called Trump's threat to destroy Iranian civilization "truly unacceptable" and demanded an "off-ramp" to the conflict.

"Leo has been tougher on the U.S. Than Pope Francis was on Russia," said Rocca, noting that Francis had controversially urged Ukraine to "raise the white flag."

Disagreements between the Oval Office and the Vatican are nothing new.

Pope John Paul II lobbied hard against both Gulf wars. Francis called Trump "not Christian" during the 2016 campaign over his anti-immigrant language, though both sides eventually settled into an uneasy coexistence — sealed by a Trump family visit to the Vatican in 2017.

But now, Leo and Trump are at odds not only on the U.S. And Israel-Iran war but on immigration, foreign policy and the moral framing of American power itself.

"There seems to be some shakiness on how to handle this," Rocca said of the White House's approach.

Trump's deletion of the Christ-like image was telling, Rocca says. The post was pulled not only because it offended Catholics, he says, but also because it offended Christians.

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"The original anti-Pope tweet was probably not too damaging, because there are even Catholics who disagree with the Pope on this," Rocca said. "But if it keeps up, it's probably not helpful for Trump."

White concurs. "To see the president use those Christian images is certainly beyond the pale," he said, especially for evangelicals who take religious imagery seriously.

Trump, he argues, likely views the man now occupying the Chair of Saint Peter as a rival  — the other most famous American in the world, as well as more liked by Americans. 

A March NBC News survey found the Pope with a net favourability rating 34 points in positive territory, while the president was 12 points underwater among registered voters.

"The idea of having the first American Pope pitted against the president is unadvisable," White said. "And yet, here we are."

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The conflict catches Vice President Vance between competing loyalties, White says — the pope whose church he joined just a few years ago, and the president who is his boss.

Only a year ago, Vance said he was grateful to John Paul II for trying to keep the United States out of war with Iraq a quarter of a century ago, says White. While it's an open secret Vance has opposed Trump’s U.S. War against Iran, any similar expression of gratitude to Leo for his anti-war stance seems highly unlikely.

Here in Italy, Trump's attacks eventually pushed Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni — circumspect at best when expressing disagreement with the U.S. President — to be unequivocal.

Pope Leo, after criticism from Trump, says he will keep speaking out against war

Meloni, who is a close Trump ally and practicing Catholic, declared the president’s remarks "unacceptable," saying it was "right and normal" for the Pope to call for peace.

Her far-right, anti-immigration coalition partner Matteo Salvini hit harder. Attacking the Pope, he said, "doesn't seem like a useful or intelligent thing to do."

With Italian elections approaching and YouGov polling 80 per cent of Italians as disapproving of Trump, Meloni was hardly risking much by defending the Pope in her Catholic homeland.

The more important question now is how, if at all, Trump's gunning for the pope will affect November's U.S. Midterms.

A slim majority of Catholics, who make up about a fifth of American voters, cast their ballot for Trump in 2024. If he continues to offend them, that support could become much less secure.

"You're hearing more and more from American Catholics saying, ‘this is not what I signed up for,’" said White.

Rome correspondent

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