On April 12, U.S. President Donald Trump launched a lengthy broadside against Pope Leo XIV. In a social media post, he described the head of the Catholic Church as being “weak on crime”, “weak on nuclear weapons”, and “terrible for foreign policy”. As he went on, the tirade became a personal attack, with Mr. Trump taking credit for Leo – born Robert Francis Prevost – getting picked to be the Pope. “He [Prevost] 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,” he wrote.
Mr. Trump ended by urging ‘Leo’ to “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.”
Published – April 19, 2026 01:00 am IST
