What a time to be alive. The President of the United States has officially declared war on the Pope. Not metaphorically but on Truth Social. At midnight. With capital letters.
In a post exceeding 300 words, Donald Trump descended upon Pope Leo XIV with the full force of his grievance machine. The Pope, for the crime of calling war “truly unacceptable” and preaching peace from St. Peter’s Basilica, was labelled “WEAK on Crime” and “terrible for Foreign Policy.” One imagines the Holy Father reading this and thinking ‘I shepherd 1.4 billion souls, and I’m being reviewed like a struggling middle manager’.
But the piece de resistance, the detail that belongs in a museum dedicated to the unhinged, was Trump’s claim that Leo wouldn’t even be in the Vatican if it weren’t for him.
“If I wasn’t in the White House, Leo wouldn’t be in the Vatican,” Trump wrote apparently under the impression that the College of Cardinals convenes like a party donor list and that the Holy Spirit defers to MAGA endorsements.
For those who may need a brief theological clarification, Catholics believe the Pope is not elected by the people to represent the people. He is chosen through the Cardinals, guided by the Holy Spirit. He is, in the language of the Church, the Vicar of Christ. He is not a DOGE appointment.
What triggered this late-night theological crisis? Pope Leo XIV, the first American-born pope, elected in May 2025, a man from Chicago, had the audacity to speak like a Christian. He hosted a global Prayer Vigil for Peace, condemned what he called the “delusion of omnipotence” in the US-Israel war on Iran, and urged politicians to “work for peace and to reject war always.” He is, in short, doing what the leader of the world’s largest Christian denomination is supposed to do. Which is, apparently, a problem for Trump.
Shortly after his papal tirade, Trump posted an AI-generated image of himself depicted as Jesus Christ healing a sick man in a bed, surrounded by followers and angels. Surely this constitutes blasphemy? Back to the gaslighting, as he later told us that he isn’t Jesus but dressed like a doctor, as if we are stupid. Maybe at this point we are.
Jesuit priest, Father James Martin called Trump’s attacks “unhinged, uncharitable and unchristian.”
Archbishop Paul Coakley, president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, stated plainly, “Pope Leo is not his rival; nor is the Pope a politician. He is the Vicar of Christ.”
Meanwhile, over on Fox News, Sean Hannity reportedly wondered aloud whether the Pope had “even read the Bible” in response to the Pope’s anti-conflict stance. The Pope. The spiritual successor to Saint Peter. Whether the Pope has ‘read the Bible’. Truly no words.
The political maths here is genuinely breathtaking. Sixty-two percent of white Catholics in the United States voted for Donald Trump in 2024. Three of the most influential American cardinals recently appeared on 60 Minutes to criticise the Iran war and the administration’s immigration crackdown and Trump has since moved to sideline them.
And what of Pope Leo? He is currently on a plane to for an 11-day tour of Africa unbothered. When asked about Trump’s Truth Social assault, he offered the response of someone deeply secure in their purpose, “I have no fear of the Trump administration or speaking out about the message of the Gospel. We are not politicians. I do believe in the message of the Gospel, as a peacemaker.” Then he gestured to the platform Trump had chosen to launch his attack. “It’s ironic,” Leo said, “the name of the site itself. Say no more.”
He was right. Say no more. The man who posts AI images of himself as Jesus Christ at 3am is not a figure the Pope needs to fear. But the rest of us, particularly those of us who have watched women, minorities and refugees be cast aside in the name of a “Christian” political movement, are watching something rot in real time. The hypocrisy isn’t incidental. It is the entire architecture.
MAGA is at war with the teachings of Christ. The base is being asked to choose between a man who posts himself as a divine healer and a Pope who advocates for the actual content of the Gospels — peace, care for the poor, welcome of the stranger. Some of them don’t even understand the institutional structure they’re being asked to betray. And that, in its own bleak way, is the most exhausting part of all.
Every morning brings a new outrage calibrated to exhaust us into submission. Every day the headlines require a theology degree, a political science doctorate, and a few very strong coffees. As I was writing this article on the couch at 9.30 in the evening, my 19-year-old son asked me what l was doing and l told him what l was writing about. He turned to me with the clarity that only the young can summon in moments of collective absurdity, “the world is f**ked, isn’t it?”
I couldn’t argue with him.