Overview
- The Diocese of Palm Beach, which displayed a message during Sunday Mass, said President Trump’s attacks on Pope Leo XIV were “disrespectful and violent” and a “grave violation” of religious freedom, and it asked parishioners to pray for the pope’s safety.
- Republican Senator John Kennedy criticized the president’s rhetoric in a Fox News interview, calling it a “new holy war” and asking why the United States should pick a fight with the pope.
- Trump pressed the pontiff with two pointed questions in a New York Post interview that implied the pope tolerates an Iranian nuclear weapon and killings of protesters, positions the pope has not endorsed.
- The clash has been fueled by Trump’s social post of an AI image casting himself in a Jesus‑like role, which he deleted after criticism from religious conservatives and Catholics.
- Pope Leo has rejected a personal back‑and‑forth and continues to call for ceasefire and diplomacy in Iran, a stance scholars place within decades of Vatican emphasis on peace and the moral limits of war.