Updated ,first published
Minutes after posting his rant about Pope Leo being “weak on crime” and “terrible for foreign policy”, Donald Trump posted an AI image of himself as Jesus Christ healing the sick – overlooked by an American flag, fighter jets and a bald eagle.
It was typical of the AI slop that is regularly amplified by the president’s social media account. But it was a good reminder, if one was needed, that this is a president and an administration that is happy to take the lord’s name – and image – in vain, while portraying themselves as men of God.
Not only did Trump malign Leo as a wannabe politician who should “get his act together” and focus on his job, but he claimed Leo was selected as pope not because of any personal attributes, divine insights or leadership qualities, but because the Vatican thought he might get on better with Trump.
“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,” the president asserted on Truth Social. “If I wasn’t in the White House, Leo wouldn’t be in the Vatican.”
Commensurate with this level of narcissism, Leo is copping it because he dared to publicly criticise Trump and the war against Iran.
The pope described Trump’s incendiary social media post – the one that threatened Iranian civilisation would “die tonight” – as “truly unacceptable”.
Then, at an evening prayer service at St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican, he appeared to condemn the Trump administration’s brash approach to the war, and spoke of a “delusion of omnipotence” that was becoming “increasingly unpredictable and aggressive”.
“Enough of the idolatry of self and money!” Leo said. “Enough of the display of power! Enough of war!”
The pope is far from the only senior Catholic speaking out. Three cardinals who appeared on 60 Minutes on Sunday night (US time) made pointed criticisms about the war, as well as the Trump administration’s immigration and deportation policies, which Leo has also condemned.
One of them, Cardinal Robert McElroy, the archbishop of Washington, described the Iran war as immoral and unnecessary when he spoke at a vigil mass for peace on the weekend. He called for his followers to oppose any attempts to restart the fighting.
If Trump and his colleagues want to lay claim to divine backing, they ought to accept when the custodians of the divine push back.
Among other critiques of the war and the administration, Cardinal Blase Cupich, the archbishop of Chicago, said it was “sickening” to see the White House gamify the war by posting videos on social media featuring footage of strikes spliced with clips from video games.
“We’re dehumanising the victims of war by turning the suffering of people and the killing of children and our own soldiers into entertainment,” Cupich told 60 Minutes. “This is not who we are. We’re better than this.”
The television program also featured remarks from Pope Leo, and was likely to have been the trigger for Trump’s incendiary social media post shortly afterwards.
In it, Trump branded the leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics “weak on crime” and “terrible for foreign policy”. He said he did not want a pope who thought it was OK for Iran to have a nuclear weapon.
Unprecedented tirade
The 79-year-old president accused Leo of catering to the “radical left” and doing a disservice to the Catholic Church, telling him to focus on being a great pope, not a politician.
Trump wrote: “I don’t want a Pope who criticises 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.”
It was an unprecedented tirade from a sitting president about a serving pope, impossible to imagine under any other US leader.
Meanwhile, Leo’s anti-war and pro-migrant views are hardly controversial for a man of the church. As the first American pope, he may be more forthcoming in his expression of those views than others would be, although his predecessor Pope Francis also criticised Trump’s border policies. War and immigration are precisely the issues on which it would be expected that a pope would take a strong stance.
The president is especially hostile to criticism when it comes from someone he believes owes him loyalty, as he evidently thinks Leo does as an American.
But Leo and the cardinals don’t just have a right to comment on Trump and his war in Iran; they have a duty to defend what they believe is the word of God and the teachings of Jesus Christ.
And it is the Trump administration that has laid claim to some kind of divine imprimatur for that war. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, in particular, has sometimes framed the Iran war as a holy war and he has asked Americans to pray for victory “in the name of Jesus Christ”.
During a service at the Pentagon last month, he led a prayer for “overwhelming violence of action against those who deserve no mercy”, among other things. And when speaking about the rescue of a downed American airman in Iran over Easter, Hegseth likened him to Jesus.
“Shot down on a Friday, Good Friday. Hidden in a cave, a crevice, all of Saturday. Rescued on Sunday,” Hegseth said. “A pilot reborn … a nation rejoicing. God is Good.”
Trump claims to have been saved by God during the assassination attempt in Pennsylvania in 2024, so that he may save the United States.
But if he and his colleagues want to lay claim to divine backing, they ought to accept when the custodians of the divine push back.
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Michael Koziol is the North America correspondent for The Age and Sydney Morning Herald. He is a former Sydney editor, Sun-Herald deputy editor and a federal political reporter in Canberra.Connect via X or email.
