{"id":6023,"date":"2026-04-13T07:36:53","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T07:36:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/04\/13\/terrible-for-foreign-policy-trump-attacks-pope-leo-after-peace-appeal\/"},"modified":"2026-04-13T07:36:53","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T07:36:53","slug":"terrible-for-foreign-policy-trump-attacks-pope-leo-after-peace-appeal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/04\/13\/terrible-for-foreign-policy-trump-attacks-pope-leo-after-peace-appeal\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Terrible for foreign policy\u2019: Trump attacks Pope Leo after peace appeal"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p><em>Leo, \u200bwho last year became the first US-born pope, has emerged as an outspoken critic of the US-Israeli \u2060war on Iran.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div aria-live=\"polite\" aria-atomic=\"true\">\n<p>United States President Donald Trump has unleashed a storm of criticism at Pope Leo XIV, calling him \u201cweak on crime\u201d and \u201cterrible for foreign policy\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Trump delivered the unusual criticism of the head of the Catholic Church in a Sunday night post on social media, saying he does not \u201cwant a Pope who criticises the President of the United States\u201d.<\/p>\n<section>\n<h2>Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n<p><span>list of 3 items<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span>list 1 of 3<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/video\/newsfeed\/2026\/4\/11\/pope-leo-urges-world-leaders-to-reject-war-and-negotiate-peace\">Pope Leo urges world leaders to reject war and negotiate peace<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 2 of 3<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2025\/12\/25\/pope-leo-laments-suffering-of-gaza-palestinians-in-first-christmas-sermon\">Pope Leo laments suffering of Gaza Palestinians in first Christmas sermon<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 3 of 3<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/video\/newsfeed\/2026\/4\/7\/pope-leo-slams-trumps-threat-that-irans-civilisation-will\">Pope Leo slams Trump\u2019s threat that Iran\u2019s \u2018civilisation will die\u2019<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n<p>Trump\u2019s outburst appeared to be triggered by recent remarks from Pope Leo critical of the US-Israel war on Iran.<\/p>\n<p>Last week, Leo issued a rare direct rebuke of Trump\u2019s threat to destroy Iranian civilisation, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/video\/newsfeed\/2026\/4\/7\/pope-leo-slams-trumps-threat-that-irans-civilisation-will\">calling it \u201ctruly unacceptable<\/a>\u201c. And then, on Sunday, the 70-year-old pontiff <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/video\/newsfeed\/2026\/4\/11\/pope-leo-urges-world-leaders-to-reject-war-and-negotiate-peace\">implored leaders to end ongoing bloodshed<\/a>, condemning what he described as a \u201cdelusion of omnipotence\u201d fuelling war \u2013 comments that appeared directed at Trump.<\/p>\n<p>The pope has also previously questioned the Trump administration\u2019s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/4\/9\/judge-bars-trump-administration-from-nixing-protected-status-for-ethiopians\">hardline immigration policies<\/a>, saying, \u201cI don\u2019t know if that\u2019s \u2060pro-life.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Taking to Truth Social, Trump wrote: \u201cI don\u2019t want a Pope who thinks it\u2019s OK for Iran to have a Nuclear Weapon. I don\u2019t want a Pope who thinks it\u2019s terrible that America attacked Venezuela.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLeo 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,\u201d said the US president.<\/p>\n<p>Trump also claimed credit for Leo\u2019s leadership in the Catholic Church, suggesting the Vatican picked the first US-born pontiff \u2013 elected last year \u2013 to curry favour with the White House. \u201cIf I wasn\u2019t in the White House, Leo wouldn\u2019t be in the Vatican,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n<p>Asked about the comments later on Sunday, Trump reiterated that he is \u201cnot a big fan\u201d of Leo, who he said \u201cis not doing a very good job\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe likes crime, I guess,\u201d said Trump. \u201cHe\u2019s a very liberal person.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Trump also had a rocky relationship with Leo\u2019s predecessor, Pope Francis, who criticised Trump\u2019s \u200cimmigration \u200cpolicy proposals when he first ran for president and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2016\/2\/18\/pope-francis-questions-donald-trumps-christian-faith#:~:text=Republican%20front%20runner%20says%20%E2%80%9Cdisgraceful,%2C%20I%20won\"t%20meddle.\">suggested Trump was \u201cnot a Christian<\/a>\u201c. Trump had called Francis \u201cdisgraceful\u201d in early 2016.<\/p>\n<p>Leo is set to begin an 11-day trip to Africa on Monday, starting with a historic visit to Muslim-majority Algeria.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Leo, \u200bwho last year became the first US-born pope, has emerged as an outspoken critic of the US-Israeli \u2060war on Iran. United States President Donald Trump has unleashed a storm of criticism at Pope Leo XIV, calling him \u201cweak on crime\u201d and \u201cterrible for foreign policy\u201d. Trump delivered the unusual criticism of the head of &#8230; <a title=\"\u2018Terrible for foreign policy\u2019: Trump attacks Pope Leo after peace appeal\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/04\/13\/terrible-for-foreign-policy-trump-attacks-pope-leo-after-peace-appeal\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about \u2018Terrible for foreign policy\u2019: Trump attacks Pope Leo after peace appeal\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6024,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6023","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6023","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6023"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6023\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}