Overview
- Trump, in a Wednesday interview with Italy’s Corriere della Sera, said Pope Leo XIV “does not understand” war and followed with a Truth Social post pressing claims about Iran’s protests and nuclear ambitions.
- Vice President J.D. Vance, who is Catholic, told Fox News on Monday that the Vatican should stick to moral questions, then on Wednesday urged the pope to speak more carefully about theology at a Turning Point USA event.
- The dispute intensified after Trump posted an AI image Sunday that cast him in a Jesus-like healing scene with U.S. eagles, a flag, a soldier and a warplane, which he removed Monday while claiming he thought it showed him as a doctor.
- Conservative religious figures such as Marjorie Taylor Greene and commentator Megan Basham denounced the image as blasphemous, a rare break from Trump that analysts warn could peel away parts of his evangelical and Catholic vote before the midterms.
- Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni labeled Trump’s attacks on the pope unacceptable, reflecting allied unease over a feud the pontiff says will not silence his calls for peace.