(LifeSiteNews) — Donald Trump has publicly criticized Pope Leo XIV over crime and foreign policy positions.
In a response this morning, April 13, the Chicago-born Pontiff said that he was not afraid of the Trump administration and did not want to get into a debate.
Late Sunday night, April 12, U.S. President Donald Trump published a statement on Truth Social attacking what he sees as Pope Leo XIV’s positions on crime, foreign policy, and U.S. leadership, explicitly referencing the Pope’s meeting at the Vatican with David Axelrod, a former senior adviser to President Barack Obama, and presenting that encounter as evidence of political alignment with figures he described as hostile to his administration.
“I don’t want a Pope who thinks it’s ok for Iran to have a nuclear weapon,” Trump wrote, adding that Pope Leo “meets with Obama sympathizers like David Axelrod, a loser from the left, who is one of those who wanted churchgoers and clerics to be arrested. 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!”
President Trumps Rips on Pope Leo XIV after the Pope met with Obama advisor Alexrod. On TruthSocial Trump said of Leo: “he meets with Obama Sympathizers like David Axelrod, a LOSER from the Left, who is one of those who wanted churchgoers and clerics to be arrested. Leo should…
— John-Henry Westen (@JhWesten) April 13, 2026
According to Trump, Pope Leo XIV is “weak on crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy.” In his post on Truth, he highlighted what he perceives as a serious inconsistency on the part of the Catholic Church in recent years: on the one hand, Pope Leo today accuses the American administration of acting out of “fear”; on the other hand, the Pope would be forgetting that it was precisely fear that, during COVID, pushed the Church under Francis, “and all other Christian Organizations,” to arrest “priests, ministers, and everybody else, for holding Church Services.”
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In the same message, Trump also urged the Pope to take an example from his brother: “I like his brother Louis much better than I like him, because Louis is all MAGA. He gets it, and Leo doesn’t!”
“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,” he added.
Furthermore, Trump insinuated that the election of Leo XIV, which took place on May 8, 2025, was motivated purely by political reasons aimed at countering his presidential election. “Leo should be thankful because, as everyone knows, he was a shocking surprise. 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. If I wasn’t in the White House, Leo wouldn’t be in the Vatican.”
The meeting between Pope Leo XIV and David Axelrod took place on April 9, 2026 in the Vatican. Axelrod, known for his role as a senior political strategist during Barack Obama’s presidency, has remained active in public commentary and political analysis in the United States. No official Vatican transcript of the conversation has been released, and the Holy See has not provided detailed remarks on its substance.
According to ANSA, the Italian news wire service, Pope Leo’s response to Trump’s post was firm.
“I am not afraid of the Trump administration,” the Pontiff responded.
“I speak about the Gospel” and therefore “I will continue to speak out against war,” he added in comments to journalists on his flight from Rome to Alegeria.
“I don’t intend to enter into a debate with [President Trump].”
Trump’s pugnatious statement arrived shortly after renewed media attention on relations between the Vatican and the United States. In particular, a report from The Free Press focused on a separate meeting held on January 22, 2026 at the Pentagon between the U.S. Under Secretary of War for Policy Elbridge Colby and the then Apostolic Nuncio to the United States, Cardinal Christophe Pierre.
That January meeting followed Pope Leo XIV’s January 9, 2026 address to the diplomatic corps, in which he warned against the growing use of force in international relations. Multiple media outlets, like NBC Chicago, The Pillar, and The Catholic Herald, reported differing accounts of the Pentagon discussion, with descriptions ranging from “tense” and “confrontational” to “frank and direct.” Some reports alleged that U.S. officials used historically charged language, including a reference to the Avignon Papacy, though this detail has not been consistently confirmed.
Both the Pentagon and the Vatican have formally rejected more severe characterisations of the meeting. The Pentagon stated that the discussion was “respectful and reasonable,” while the Holy See Press Office, through its director Matteo Bruni, declared that certain media narratives do not correspond to the facts. U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See Brian Burch reported that Cardinal Pierre had described the exchange as “frank, but very cordial.”
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In remarks reported in the Italian newspaper Il Giornale, Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke stated that the idea of a structural conflict between the United States and the Vatican has been overstated.
“The narrative of an ongoing Vatican–U.S. clash is exaggerated,” Burke told Italian journalist Nico Spuntoni. “It is not true that Trump’s America and Leo’s Church are opposed. There is great respect for the Church in America, and Catholics have always contributed greatly to the life of the nation in every respect. For a long time, there was an anti-Catholic prejudice claiming that we wanted the Pope to govern the country. But doctrine has never taught that the Church must govern. We Catholics follow the Lord’s teaching to render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s and unto God what is God’s. The Church teaches moral principles but then leaves to those in authority the proper competence to make decisions.”
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