If President Donald Trump wants to avoid a political disaster for his party in the November legislative elections, he should, among other things, end his public fight with Pope Leo XIV. Polls show that the pope is winning this dispute comfortably.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll, published on Tuesday, April 21, revealed that 60% of Americans have a favorable opinion of Pope Leo. In comparison, only 36% have a favorable image of Trump.
Another Economist/YouGov poll asked Americans whether they agree with Trump or Pope Leo on the war in Iran, and found that 48% side with Leo, while only 28% agree with Trump. The remaining 24% said they were not sure.
More importantly, among independent voters 50% sided with Pope Leo, while only 15% sided with Trump.
Trump said Pope Leo is “weak on crime” and “terrible on foreign policy,” after the pontiff called for an end to wars in the Middle East. The pope responded by stating that he is not afraid of the Trump government and, later, clarified that “it is not in my interest” to debate with the president of the United States.
However, the fight returned to the front pages after Trump published an image generated by artificial intelligence on his social network that shows him as if he were Jesus healing a sick person. Facing public outrage, Trump later deleted that post and said he believed the image showed him as a doctor, not Jesus.
But few believed his excuse. It is likely that Trump’s criticism of the pope is part of his media “flood the zone” strategy.
Trump constantly seeks to generate news to put himself at the center of public debate and try to influence the political agenda. Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski told me that Trump is most likely trying to divert attention from other issues with his criticism of León.
“It’s a distraction,” Wenski told me, referring to Trump’s attacks on the pope on social media. “When people talk about the beef between the pope and the president, they’re not talking about Iran, or (the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey) Epstein, or gas prices.”
Wenski added that “the pope is doing what popes have always done: advocating for peace and justice. No one should be surprised by this, and neither should the president.”
If Trump continues attacking León, he stands to lose. Unlike what happened when Trump confronted Pope Francis over immigration or climate change, the American president will have a difficult time convincing conservative Catholics that the new pope is a “progressive” or a “leftist.”
Pope Leo wears more traditional papal attire than Francis, is less critical of the Latin Mass than his predecessor, and does not wade into controversies about the gay community.
Daniel Álvarez, professor of religion at Florida International University (FIU), told me that Pope Leo has not projected an image of being “neither extreme right nor extreme left.”
Likewise, unlike Francis, León—the first American pontiff—speaks English as his native language, which puts him closer to Catholics in the United States.
“Trump and his allies would do themselves a favor if they ended this dispute, because the pope is winning,” Álvarez concluded.
Trump says he is not interested in a meeting with the pope. However, I would bet that the closer we get to the November elections, the more likely it will be that he will seek out an encounter—and a smiling photo—with the pope.
Trump needs that photo more than the pope: he is seeing his popularity decline and risks losing control of Congress in November.
The Pope doesn’t have that problem. León can continue calmly, calmly advocating for peace and justice, while watching his popularity ratings continue to rise.
*This article was originally published in The New Herald.
