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Trump Attacks Pope Leo in a Deranged Rant

Trump Attacks Pope Leo in a Deranged Rant

Last updated on: April 13, 2026 at 12:25 am by Mary Pezzulo

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Trump Attacks Pope Leo in a Deranged Rant 2026-04-13T00:25:31-04:00 Mary Pezzulo

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We need to talk about the spat between the Trump Administration and the Pope one more time.

It needs to be mentioned, first of all, that there have been conflicting accounts about exactly what happened at that meeting between Cardinal Pierre and Elbridge Colby which I told you about last week. No one denies the meeting happened. It certainly did. No one denies words were exchanged. Some are saying it was perfectly cordial and that claiming Colby threatened the Cardinal is calumny. Some are saying it was not exactly a threat, but it was contentious and awkward. I wasn’t there so I can’t say, but my analysis of the situation still stands. The government simply has no business summoning a cleric to the Pentagon to chide him like that.

But in any case, the meeting at the Pentagon in January is now far in the rearview mirror because of the events that happened this week and today. As you recall, on Easter Sunday, Trump threatened to commit war crimes by blowing up all the bridges and power plants in Iran, and the Pope preached a pointed sermon about war. Then, on Easter Tuesday, Trump committed the war crime of threatening genocide against the Iranian people– and I do want to stress that just threatening to do something like that is, in itself, a war crime. About twelve hours later, he walked back his threat and said there would be a two-week ceasefire while negotiations were tried. But he did not, himself, negotiate with the Iranian government, nor did he send Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Instead, he attended a UFC fighting game with Rubio while Vice President Vance and the presidential son-in-law, Jared Kushner, spent 21 hours negotiating with Iran. This was fruitless, and no one knows what’s going to happen next.

In the meanwhile, on Easter Saturday, Pope Leo did what is completely sensible for a Pope to do: he held a vigil to pray for world peace, and invited everyone in the world to pray with him.Trump didn’t like that.

Tonight, on Divine Mercy Sunday at just about nine o’clock Eastern (or three AM Monday on Vatican time), Donald Trump posted a long rant about the Pope to his social media platform, Truth Social. I’m going to copy and paste it in its entirety here:

Pope Leo is WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy. He talks about “fear” of the Trump Administration, but doesn’t mention the FEAR that the Catholic Church, and all other Christian Organizations, had during COVID when they were arresting priests, ministers, and everybody else, for holding Church Services, even when going outside, and being ten and even twenty feet apart. 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 thinks it’s OK for Iran to have a Nuclear Weapon. I don’t want a Pope who thinks it’s terrible that America attacked Venezuela, a Country that was sending massive amounts of Drugs into the United States and, even worse, emptying their prisons, including murderers, drug dealers, and killers, into our Country. And 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. 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. Unfortunately, Leo’s Weak on Crime, Weak on Nuclear Weapons, does not sit well with me, nor does the fact that 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 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 DONALD J. TRUMP

Yes.

Donald J. Trump, an adjudicated sex abuser and tax fraud. Donald J. Trump who was found guilty of thirty-five felony counts for his actions covering up a dalliance he had with an adult film star who was traumatized by the experience. Trump who has cheated on all three of his wives with younger women and publicly fantasized about dating his own daughter. Trump, who once played a role in a porno. This same Donald Trump, says that the Pope is weak on crime.

And then, a bit later in the night, he posted a tacky AI portrait of himself as Jesus Christ, healing the sick.

I hope Pope Leo is ignoring all of this and getting a wonderful night’s sleep, because he’s going to be doing his job and going on a pilgrimage to Africa in the morning, and I wish him all the best.

I would say that Trump has jumped the shark, but I’ve been reporting on his nonsense for the past ten years, and I know better. Things will get worse, and his sycophants will praise him for it. I’m sure Bishop Barron is already preparing a statement on how Pope Leo really ought to invest in a nuke for the Vatican. And my brain is alive with comical images of what a Vatican nuke would look like. Surely it would have a fun-to-say Italian name like “the Nukaccino” and look like the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch.

I want to draw some broader lesson from all of this, but I honestly can’t think of one.

The whole situation would be funny if it was happening in a nightmare dark comedy about the end of the world.

It ought to be terrifying, because this is a man with access to the nuclear codes who has signaled that he’s perfectly fine with genocide, and he’s completely out of his mind. But it’s so tawdry and idiotic that I can’t think of it that way.

I wish American Catholics had listened to all of us insisting that there’s nothing good or safe or pro-life about Donald Trump.

I wish none of this had happened in my time, but here I am.

Mary Pezzulo is the author of Meditations on the Way of the Cross, The Sorrows an d Joys of Mary, and Stumbling into Grace: How We Meet God in Tiny Works of Mercy.

Steel Magnificat operates almost entirely on tips. To tip the author, donate to “The Little Portion” on paypal or Mary Pezzulo on venmo

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