{"id":6546,"date":"2026-04-13T03:33:46","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T03:33:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news678.top\/?p=6546"},"modified":"2026-04-13T03:33:46","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T03:33:46","slug":"trump-takes-aim-at-pope-leo-calling-him-weak-on-crime-and-terrible-for-foreign-policy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news678.top\/?p=6546","title":{"rendered":"Trump takes aim at Pope Leo, calling him &#8220;WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy.&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p>President Trump lashed out at <span class=\"link\">Pope Leo XIV<\/span> in a lengthy social media post Sunday night, <span class=\"link\">calling the pontiff<\/span> &#8220;WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"link\">Leo has been critical of the war in Iran<\/span> and has previously made statements at odds with other priorities of the Trump administration, such as the ongoing crackdown on illegal immigration.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t want a Pope who thinks it&#8217;s OK for <span class=\"link\">Iran<\/span> to have a Nuclear Weapon. I don&#8217;t want a Pope who thinks it&#8217;s terrible that America attacked Venezuela, a Country that was sending massive amounts of Drugs into the United States and, even worse, emptying their prisons, including murderers, drug dealers, and killers, into our Country,&#8221; Mr. Trump wrote.<\/p>\n<p>Leo had called Mr. Trump&#8217;s threat to completely destroy Iranian civilization &#8220;truly unacceptable,&#8221; and encouraged people to &#8220;contact the authorities \u2014 political leaders, congressmen \u2014 to ask them, tell them to work for peace and to reject war, always.&#8221;\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>On Saturday, while he did not mention Mr. Trump by name, Leo said during a prayer vigil for peace at St. Peter&#8217;s Basilica, &#8220;Enough with the idolatry of self and money! Enough with the display of force! Enough with war! True strength is manifested in serving life.&#8221;<\/p>\n<figure class=\"embed embed--type-image is-image embed--float-none embed--size-medium\">\n<p>      <span class=\"img embed__content\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/assets3.cbsnewsstatic.com\/hub\/i\/r\/2026\/04\/13\/d781cd6f-a7e9-4048-a4e4-8951401d96c4\/thumbnail\/620x414\/6961d26fb848dac5081ace0678526b43\/gettyimages-2271004333.jpg#\" alt=\"Vatican Pool Images 2026 \" height=\"414\" width=\"620\" class=\" lazyload\" srcset=\"https:\/\/assets3.cbsnewsstatic.com\/hub\/i\/r\/2026\/04\/13\/d781cd6f-a7e9-4048-a4e4-8951401d96c4\/thumbnail\/620x414\/6961d26fb848dac5081ace0678526b43\/gettyimages-2271004333.jpg 1x, https:\/\/assets1.cbsnewsstatic.com\/hub\/i\/r\/2026\/04\/13\/d781cd6f-a7e9-4048-a4e4-8951401d96c4\/thumbnail\/1240x828\/f2fcc678b82f1a40c652facd7856d4fc\/gettyimages-2271004333.jpg 2x\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/span><figcaption class=\"embed__caption-container\">\n<p>                  <span class=\"embed__caption\">Pope Leo XIV addresses those gathered in Saint Peter&#8217;s Square for the Regina Caeli on April 12, 2026, in Vatican City, Vatican.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>                  <span class=\"embed__credit\"><\/p>\n<p>                Elisabetta Trevisan &#8211; Vatican Media via Vatican Pool \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>                          <\/span><br \/>\n              <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>He also urged an end to the war through negotiations, saying, &#8220;Certainly, the leaders of nations have compelling responsibilities. We cry out to them: stop! This is the time for peace! Sit at the tables of dialogue and mediation, not at the tables where rearmament is planned and death is deliberated!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The pope also criticized the war on Friday in a post on\u00a0social media, writing, &#8220;God does not bless any conflict. Anyone who is a disciple of Christ, the Prince of Peace, is never on the side of those who once wielded the sword and today drop bombs.&#8221; \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>And in a Palm Sunday homily last month, Leo also appeared to criticize Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, saying that Jesus &#8220;does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Trump also claimed Sunday that Leo would not have been elected pope if it weren&#8217;t for him, writing that he &#8220;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.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t want a Pope who criticizes the President of the United States,&#8221; Mr. Trump wrote.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;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&#8217;s hurting him very badly and, more importantly, it&#8217;s hurting the Catholic Church!&#8221; the president said.<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Trump repeated several of his claims to reporters Sunday night after arriving back in Washington, D.C., saying, &#8220;We don&#8217;t like a pope who says it&#8217;s OK to have a nuclear weapon.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t think he&#8217;s doing a very good job. He likes crime, I guess,&#8221; Mr. Trump said, adding, &#8220;He&#8217;s a very liberal person.&#8221;<\/p>\n<section class=\"content__body--footer\">\n<\/section>\n<p>  <!-- data-recirc-source=\"queryly\" --><\/p>\n<aside class=\"component list recirculation component--type-recirculation  \">\n<p><h3 class=\"component__title\">More from CBS News<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n<div class=\"component__item-recirc-block\">\n<p><h3 class=\"component__title\">Go deeper with The Free Press<\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<section class=\"content__body--footer\">\n      <!-- tags --><br \/>\n    <\/section>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p> Trump takes aim at Pope Leo, calling him &#8220;WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy.&#8221;<br \/>\n<br \/>#Trump #takes #aim #Pope #Leo #calling #WEAK #Crime #terrible #Foreign #Policy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>President Trump lashed out at Pope Leo XIV in a lengthy social media post Sunday&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6547,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[2262,6164,946,3534,3457,4465,2452,1468,6166,535,6165],"class_list":["post-6546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories","tag-aim","tag-calling","tag-crime","tag-foreign","tag-leo","tag-policy","tag-pope","tag-takes","tag-terrible","tag-trump","tag-weak"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/gettyimages-2271004333.jpg",1200,630,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/gettyimages-2271004333-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/gettyimages-2271004333-300x158.jpg",300,158,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/gettyimages-2271004333-768x403.jpg",640,336,true],"large":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/gettyimages-2271004333-1024x538.jpg",640,336,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/gettyimages-2271004333.jpg",1200,630,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/gettyimages-2271004333.jpg",1200,630,false],"covernews-featured":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/gettyimages-2271004333-1024x538.jpg",1024,538,true],"covernews-medium":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/gettyimages-2271004333-540x340.jpg",540,340,true]},"author_info":{"display_name":"admin","author_link":"https:\/\/news678.top\/?author=1"},"category_info":"<a href=\"https:\/\/news678.top\/?cat=7\" rel=\"category\">Stories<\/a>","tag_info":"Stories","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6546","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6546"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6546\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}