https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/apr/13/donald-trump-pope-leo

President says US-born pope is ‘not doing a very good job’ and is ‘a very liberal person’ in unprecedented assault on leader of Catholic church

President Donald Trump has delivered an extraordinary broadside against Pope Leo XIV, saying he didn’t think the US-born leader of the Catholic church was “doing a very good job” and that he was “a very liberal person”, while also suggesting the pontiff should “stop catering to the Radical Left”.

Flying back to Washington from Florida on Sunday night, Trump used a lengthy social media post to sharply criticise Leo, then kept it up in comments on the tarmac to reporters.

“I’m not a fan of Pope Leo,” he said.

Trump’s comments came after Leo suggested over the weekend that a “delusion of omnipotence” was fuelling the US-Israel war in Iran. While it’s not unusual for popes and presidents to be at cross-purposes, it’s exceedingly rare for the pope to criticise a US leader – and Trump’s stinging response is equally uncommon.

“Pope Leo is WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy,” the president wrote in his post, adding: “I don’t want a Pope who thinks it’s OK for Iran to have a Nuclear Weapon.”

He repeated that sentiment in comments to reporters, saying: “We don’t like a pope who says it’s OK to have a nuclear weapon.”

Later, he posted a clearly AI-generated image of himself as a Jesus-like figure, appearing to “cure” a man.

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