President Donald Trump sharply rebuked Pope Leo XIV in remarks to reporters and on social media Sunday, calling the first American leader of the Catholic Church \u201cWEAK on crime\u201d and \u201cterrible for Foreign Policy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think he\u2019s doing a very good job. He likes crime, I guess,\u201d Trump told reporters at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, when he was asked about his lengthy Truth Social post Sunday night criticizing the pope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t like a pope that\u2019s going to say that it\u2019s OK to have a nuclear weapon. We don\u2019t want a pope that says crime is OK in our cities. I don\u2019t like it. I\u2019m not a big fan of Pope Leo,\u201d Trump added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Vatican did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The pope last week criticized Trump’s public threats to \u201cwipe out\u201d Iranian civilization, saying \u201cattacks on civilian infrastructure are against international law\u201d and urging people to contact leaders and members of Congress to call for peace. He has urged Trump to end the war in Iran, and he lamented in his Easter message last week that the world is \u201cbecoming indifferent\u201d to violence. Leo had also criticized the Trump administration\u2019s immigration policies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cLeo should be thankful because, as everyone knows, he was a shocking surprise. He wasn\u2019t 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\u2019t in the White House, Leo wouldn\u2019t be in the Vatican,\u201d Trump said on Truth Social.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump hasn’t always been critical of Leo. At the time, Trump called the pope’s election in May “an honor for our country.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“It\u2019s such a great honor for our country to have an American pope. I mean, what greater honor could there be? That we were a little bit surprised, very happy. But just a great, absolutely great honor,” he said at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A March NBC News poll found U.S. voters viewed Pope Leo more favorably than Trump. Forty-two percent of respondents said they had positive views of the pope, while just 8% had negative views of him. While 41% of respondents said they had positive views of Trump, 53% said they had negative views of him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n