US President Donald Trump has launched an unusual and scathing attack on Pope Leo over his opposition to US immigration policy and the war in Iran, the BBC reports.
The US president accused the pontiff of being “WEAK on Crime and terrible for Foreign Policy” in a Truth Social post, later telling reporters he was “not a big fan.”
The Pope has been a staunch critic of the war, calling Trump’s threat to destroy Iranian civilization “unacceptable” and calling for him to find an “off-ramp” to end the conflict. But in general it is rare for a pope to directly criticise statements by world leaders.
There are more than 70 million Catholics in the US, about 20% of the population. They include Trump’s Vice-President JD Vance.
Trump’s remarks came as the pontiff embarked on an 11-day trip to Africa, his second major foreign trip since being elected last year.
The US president wrote in Sunday’s post that the Pope “should get his act together” and said he was “weak on nuclear weapons”, apparently referring to Tehran’s attempts to become a nuclear power, cited as one of the reasons for the US and Israel going to war with Iran.
He also suggested that the pontiff was elected “because he was 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.”
