Leo, \u200bwho last year became the first US-born pope, has emerged as an outspoken critic of the US-Israeli \u2060war on Iran.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Published On 13 Apr 2026<\/span>13 Apr 2026<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n United States President Donald Trump has unleashed a storm of criticism at Pope Leo XIV, calling him \u201cweak on crime\u201d and \u201cterrible for foreign policy\u201d.<\/p>\n Trump delivered the unusual criticism of the head of the Catholic Church in a Sunday night post on social media, saying he does not \u201cwant a Pope who criticises the President of the United States\u201d.<\/p>\n list of 3 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n Trump\u2019s outburst appeared to be triggered by recent remarks from Pope Leo critical of the US-Israel war on Iran.<\/p>\n Last week, Leo issued a rare direct rebuke of Trump\u2019s threat to destroy Iranian civilisation, calling it \u201ctruly unacceptable\u201c. And then, on Sunday, the 70-year-old pontiff implored leaders to end ongoing bloodshed, condemning what he described as a \u201cdelusion of omnipotence\u201d fuelling war \u2013 comments that appeared directed at Trump.<\/p>\n The pope has also previously questioned the Trump administration\u2019s hardline immigration policies, saying, \u201cI don\u2019t know if that\u2019s \u2060pro-life.\u201d<\/p>\n Taking to Truth Social, Trump wrote: \u201cI don\u2019t want a Pope who thinks it\u2019s OK for Iran to have a Nuclear Weapon. I don\u2019t want a Pope who thinks it\u2019s terrible that America attacked Venezuela.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cLeo 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,\u201d said the US president.<\/p>\n Trump also claimed credit for Leo\u2019s leadership in the Catholic Church, suggesting the Vatican picked the first US-born pontiff \u2013 elected last year \u2013 to curry favour with the White House. \u201cIf I wasn\u2019t in the White House, Leo wouldn\u2019t be in the Vatican,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n Asked about the comments later on Sunday, Trump reiterated that he is \u201cnot a big fan\u201d of Leo, who he said \u201cis not doing a very good job\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cHe likes crime, I guess,\u201d said Trump. \u201cHe\u2019s a very liberal person.\u201d<\/p>\n Trump also had a rocky relationship with Leo\u2019s predecessor, Pope Francis, who criticised Trump\u2019s \u200cimmigration \u200cpolicy proposals when he first ran for president and suggested Trump was \u201cnot a Christian\u201c. Trump had called Francis \u201cdisgraceful\u201d in early 2016.<\/p>\n Leo is set to begin an 11-day trip to Africa on Monday, starting with a historic visit to Muslim-majority Algeria.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Leo, \u200bwho last year became the first US-born pope, has emerged as an outspoken critic of the US-Israeli \u2060war on Iran. Published On 13 Apr 202613 Apr 2026 United States President Donald Trump has unleashed a storm of criticism at Pope Leo XIV, calling him \u201cweak on crime\u201d and \u201cterrible for foreign policy\u201d. Trump delivered […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18721,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-us-canada-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18720"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18720\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/2017-06-08T131939Z_1189275883_RC11B0FE7F20_RTRMADP_3_GULF-QATAR-JAZEERA-1714943623.jpg?resize=96%2C96&quality=80)
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