A sitting American president and the leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics are now in an open public dispute — and a financier on live television just made it significantly stranger.
President Donald Trump took to Truth Social on Sunday to declare that Pope Leo XIV is “weak,” a captive of the “Radical Left,” and, perhaps most pointedly, a man who owes his entire papacy to Trump himself.
“He wasn’t on any list to be Pope,” Trump wrote, “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.”
Trump did not stop there. He added that without his presence in the White House, the pontiff would not be occupying the Vatican.
The president also shared his view on the pope’s brother, Louis, whom he described as “all MAGA,” adding: “He gets it, and Leo doesn’t.”
The confrontation traces back to Pope Leo XIV’s public remarks criticizing the American military offensive against Iran — remarks that stopped short of naming Trump or Washington directly but left little room for interpretation.
Trump answered with a sustained series of public broadsides directed at the pope.
Pope Leo XIV responded from aboard a flight to Algeria, telling reporters traveling with him that he intends to keep speaking regardless of White House pressure.
“I have no fear of the Trump administration, or speaking out loudly of the message of the gospel, which is what I believe I am here to do, what the Church is here to do,” the pope said.
He also declined to engage Trump personally. “I don’t want to get into a debate with him,” Leo said, before adding: “Too many people are suffering in the world today. Too many innocent people are being killed. And I think someone has to stand up and say: there’s a better way to do this.”
During the same stretch, three Catholic cardinals separately went public with criticism of U.S. immigration policy, adding another layer of friction between the Vatican and Washington.
Into that already volatile atmosphere walked Hal Lambert, chief of Point Bridge Capital and a vocal supporter of Trump, who sat down Monday on CNN’s NewsNight with Abby Phillip and offered a theory that made the panel stop cold.
Lambert alleged that Pope Leo XIV, former President Barack Obama, and CNN chief political analyst David Axelrod — all Chicago natives — are operating in coordination to drive Catholic voters away from Trump and Republican candidates ahead of the midterms.
“This is 100 percent political, ok? This is all about trying to hurt President Trump’s Catholic vote during the midterms and Republicans in the midterms,” Lambert told the panel.
He pointed to a reported visit Axelrod made to the pope the previous week and said conversations were underway about Obama making his own visit to Leo.
“All of a sudden, now, Pope Leo is out attacking Trump and the policies of the United States and Israel,” Lambert said. “You have three cardinals come out today, attacking the immigration policy. This is all about trying to get the Catholic vote against Trump.”
Phillip told Lambert his argument carried “a lot of flaws.” Lambert pushed back immediately. “There’s no flaws,” he said. “Axelrod is the chief strategist for Obama. The pope is saying he’s not political. Why is he meeting with the chief strategist for both Obama’s campaigns and in the White House?”
CNN commentator Bakari Sellers offered a simpler answer: the pope may be meeting with people from Chicago because he is from Chicago.
Phillip also reminded Lambert that one of the late Pope Francis’s very last meetings before his death in April 2025 was with Vice President JD Vance. Lambert responded that Vance holds the office of Vice President of the United States.
That exchange underscored the broader historical moment. Pope Francis, who died in April 2025, had himself drawn White House anger after calling Trump-era migrant deportations a “major crisis.” Border czar Tom Homan publicly told Francis to “stick to the Catholic Church.” Critics had long labeled Francis anti-American — a label observers say does not apply to Pope Leo, who was born in the United States.
American presidents have historically tread carefully around papal figures, mindful of the political weight Catholic voters carry. Trump’s aggressive public posture toward Leo marks a sharp departure from that tradition — one with no clear modern precedent.
Pope John Paul II notably opposed the 2003 invasion of Iraq, yet no sitting American president responded with personal public attacks against him.
Whether Trump’s gambit consolidates his base or costs him among Catholic voters will be tested at the midterms.
