The three points at the heart of the dispute between Trump and Pope Leo XIV

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Legend image: Tensions between the Vatican and the White House had been brewing for months before Pope Leon XIV directly mentioned the war in Iran.

Published: April 14, 2026

Read time: 7 min

President Donald Trump and Pope Leon XIV engaged in an unusual public quarrel over the war in Iran after the pontiff specifically named Trump for the first time.

Elected in May 2025, the first American pope, formerly Cardinal Robert Prevost, initially adopted a more publicly reserved style than his predecessor, Pope Francis, a frequent and forceful critic of the Trump administration.

However, tensions between the Vatican and the White House had been building for months, and this latest exchange brought these differences to light.

The tension escalated on Sunday after Trump harshly attacked the pope in a lengthy message on his social media platform, Truth Social, calling him “WEAK in the face of crime and a poor foreign policy advisor”.

“I don’t want a pope who finds it acceptable for Iran to possess nuclear weapons,” Trump wrote.

“I don’t want a pope who finds it unacceptable for America to have attacked Venezuela, a country flooding the United States with drugs and, worse, emptying its prisons, including murderers, drug traffickers, and assassins, by sending them there,” he added.

The Republican then posted an image, widely identified as being generated by artificial intelligence, depicting him as a Christ-like figure “healing” a man – a move that drew criticism from religious leaders and commentators.

The image has since been removed. These remarks followed Pope Leon XIV’s condemnation of Donald Trump’s comments, where Trump warned that the United States could “annihilate Iranian civilization” if Tehran did not comply with nuclear negotiation demands and the Strait of Hormuz.

The pope described this threat as “truly unacceptable” and urged Catholics to pressure political leaders to “work for peace”.

Pope Leon XIV had directly addressed Donald Trump a few days earlier, saying, “I was told that President Trump recently stated he wants to end the war. I hope he is looking for a way out,” he told reporters on March 31.

On Sunday, the 70-year-old pontiff, at the beginning of an eleven-day trip to Africa, refused to speak with Trump personally, stating, “I am not a politician, and I do not wish to quarrel with him.”