Every word Trump and Pope Leo have said to each other in feud
What Donald Trump and Pope Leo have said to each other this year, their statements in full
Pope Leo has arrived in Algeria for the first Pontiff visit to a Muslim-majority country, but the headlines are still around the Vatican’s standoff with Donald Trump.
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The president has said Leo XIV "wouldn't be in the Vatican" without him and blasted him as being “terrible” and “weak” in a rare attack from a national leader.
Mr Trump has also shared a picture of himself mocked up as Jesus on his Truth Social platform in a reference to his back and forth over the Pope’s stance on American action in Iran.
Leo XIV, the first Pope to be born in the US, has now said he doesn't "want to get into a debate" with the president, but said he will continue to speak out against the war.
Formerly known as Robert Francis Prevost, Pope Leo was chosen last year after the death of Pope Francis.
During the Conclave, the president said: "I'd like to be Pope, that would be my number one choice!" While his Papal ambitions were downplayed as a joke, Mr Trump has not been joking around with his unprecedented assault on the Pope. Here is how their war of words has escalated.
Everything Trump and Pope Leo have said to each other in feud
January: ‘A zeal for war is spreading'
Pope Leo launched a substantial critique of US, Russian and other military incursions in sovereign countries during an address in January.
While he did not name the world leaders he had issue with, the Papal’s comments did follow the US action in Venezuela - while Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
The Pope said: "A diplomacy that promotes dialogue and seeks consensus among all parties is being replaced by a diplomacy based on force, by either individuals or groups of allies.
"The principle established after the Second World War, which prohibited nations from using force to violate the borders of others, has been completely undermined.
"Instead, peace is sought through weapons as a condition for asserting one's own dominion. “This gravely threatens the rule of law, which is the foundation of all peaceful civil coexistence."
April 5: ‘Choose peace and not war
’In a further rebuke to war, the Pope then used his first Easter Day address to call for peace.
"On this day of celebration, let us abandon every desire for conflict, domination and power, and implore the Lord to grant his peace to a world ravaged by wars," he said.
"Let those who have the power to unleash wars choose peace. Not a peace imposed by force, but through dialogue. Not with the desire to dominate others, but to encounter them.”
Following these comments, reports emerged that the Vatican's US envoy was summoned to the Pentagon in January for a "bitter" dressing down by the Trump Administration, but both the Pentagon and Vatican envoys denied such a meeting ever took place.
April 10: 'God does not bless any conflict'
Pope Leo appeared to launch a rebuke of Donald Trump’s actions in Iran by writing a critical post on X (formerly known as Twitter). "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,” the Pope wrote.
"Military action will not create space for freedom or times of peace, which comes only from the patient promotion of coexistence and dialogue among peoples."He did not name the US leader or the country itself directly, but did reference the "inhuman violence is spreading ferociously through the sacred places of the Christian East".
April 12: ‘Pope Leo is weak on crime and terrible for foreign policy’
Taking to Truth Social, Mr Trump then wrote a long attack on the Pope.
This is his full statement:“Pope Leo is WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy. He talks about “fear” of the Trump Administration, but doesn’t mention the FEAR that the Catholic Church, and all other Christian Organizations, had during COVID when they were arresting priests, ministers, and everybody else, for holding Church Services, even when going outside, and being ten and even twenty feet apart.
I like his brother Louis much better than I like him, because Louis is all MAGA. He gets it, and Leo doesn’t! I don’t want a Pope who thinks it’s OK for Iran to have a Nuclear Weapon.
“I don’t want a Pope who thinks it’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.
"And I don’t want a Pope who criticizes the President of the United States because I’m doing exactly what I was elected, IN A LANDSLIDE, to do, setting Record Low Numbers in Crime, and creating the Greatest Stock Market in History. “Leo should be thankful because, as everyone knows, he was a shocking surprise.
"He wasn’t on any list to be Pope, 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. If I wasn’t in the White House, Leo wouldn’t be in the Vatican.
"Unfortunately, Leo’s Weak on Crime, Weak on Nuclear Weapons, does not sit well with me, nor does the fact that he meets with Obama Sympathizers like David Axelrod, a LOSER from the Left, who is one of those who wanted churchgoers and clerics to be arrested. 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’s hurting him very badly and, more importantly, it’s hurting the Catholic Church!”
April 13: ‘Abusing the gospel’
After arriving in Algeria, Pope Leo then faced questions about what the president had said - only for the Pontiff to say he “does not want to get into a debate”
"I don't think that the message of the Gospel is meant to be abused in the way that some people are doing,” he said. "I will continue to speak out loudly against war, looking to promote peace, promoting dialogue and multilateral relationships among the states to look for just solutions to problems."
"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.
"I don't want to get into a debate with [Trump]," he added."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."