Donald Trump blasts Pope Leo claiming "he likes crime"

He also claimed the American pontiff was "a very liberal person" who needed to "stop catering to the Radical Left".

Trump launched his full-frontal attack on the leader of the Catholic Church in a scathing and lengthy social media post while flying back to Washington from Florida on Sunday night.

He then backed up his comments to waiting reporters when he landed.

"I’m not a fan of Pope Leo," he said.

It is believed Trump was responding to comments from Leo, who suggested over the weekend that a "delusion of omnipotence" was fuelling the US-Israel war in Iran.

Trump fired back with a typically abrasive post on his Truth Social platform

"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."

Leo presided over an evening prayer service in St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican on Saturday, the same day the US and Iran began face-to-face negotiations in Pakistan during a fragile ceasefire.

Pope Leo.

The pope didn’t mention the US or Trump by name, but his tone and message appeared to be directed at Trump and US officials, who have boasted of US military superiority and justified the war in religious terms.

The pope, who is scheduled to leave on Monday for an 11-day trip to Africa, has previously said that God "does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them". 

He has also cited an Old Testament passage from Isaiah, saying that "even though you make many prayers, I will not listen – your hands are full of blood."

Before the ceasefire, when Trump warned of mass strikes against Iranian power plants and other infrastructure and that "an entire civilization will die tonight", Leo described such sentiments as "truly unacceptable".

In his social media post on Sunday night, however, Trump went far beyond the war in Iran in criticizing Leo.

The president wrote: "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."

That was a reference to the Trump administration’s ousting of the Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro in January.

"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," Trump added, referencing his 2024 election victory.

Trump also suggested in the post that Leo only got his position "because he was an American, and they thought that would be the best way to deal with President Donald J Trump!"

"If I weren’t in the White House, Leo wouldn’t be in the Vatican," Trump wrote, adding: "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!"

In his subsequent comments to reporters, Trump remained highly critical, saying: "I don’t think he’s doing a very good job. He likes crime I guess," adding: "He’s a very liberal person."

In the 2024 election, Trump won 55% of Catholic voters, according to AP VoteCast, an extensive survey of the electorate.

But Trump’s administration also has close ties to conservative evangelical Protestant leaders and has claimed heavenly endorsement for the war on Iran.

* This article was originally published on Extra.ie.