Secretary of State Marco Rubio is preparing to meet with Pope Leo XIV in the Vatican this week, days after President Donald Trump unleashed new criticism of the pontiff over his stance on the war with Iran. The pope responded on Wednesday – without calling out Trump directly.
During an interview on Monday on the Salem News Channel, Trump accused the first American pope of wanting Iran to have nuclear weapons.
“I think he’s endangering a lot of Catholics, and a lot of people, but I guess if it’s up to the pope, he thinks it’s just fine for Iran to have a nuclear weapon,” Trump said.
It’s not the first time Trump has made comments like that about the pontiff. Last month, Trump said Leo is not “doing a very good job” and that “he’s a very liberal person,” accusing him of “catering to the radical left.”
Those comments were in response to the pope condemning Trump’s threat to “wipe out” an entire civilization in Iran and urging Americans to contact their Congress members and object.
In a lengthy social media post on April 12, Trump said, “I’m not a big fan of Pope Leo. He’s a very liberal person and he’s a man that doesn’t believe in stopping crime. He is a man that doesn’t think that we should be toying with a country that wants a nuclear weapon so they can blow up the world. I’m not a fan of Pope Leo.”
Pope Leo responds
While Pope Leo did not directly respond to Trump’s latest comments, he did tactfully push back.
“If anyone wants to criticize me for proclaiming the Gospel, let them do so truthfully,” the pope said in comments transcribed from Italian by Vatican correspondent Michael Haynes. “The Church has spoken out against all nuclear weapons for years, so there is no doubt about that.”
Rubio to meet with pope
The harsh exchanges come days before Secretary of State Marco Rubio is set to meet with the pope at the Vatican on Thursday. The meeting is an attempt for the U.S. and the Vatican to “better understand each other, and … if there are differences, certainly to talk through that,” according to Brian Burch, the U.S. ambassador to the Holy See.
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White evangelical Protestants, the most pro-Trump religious bloc of Americans, viewed Trump’s posting a photo depicting himself as Jesus negatively by a 9-10 ratio, according to a Washington Post poll.
“I don’t accept the idea that somehow there’s some deep rift,” Burch told reporters on Tuesday.
Ahead of his visit, Rubio said he expected to have a “frank” meeting with Leo, but that the purpose of the trip is not about smoothing over relations between the Trump administration and the Vatican.
“The trip is really not tied to anything other than the fact that it would be normal for us to engage, and other secretaries of state have done that in the past,” Rubio said at a press conference Tuesday.
Rubio said two areas he hopes to focus on are the distribution of humanitarian aid in Cuba and addressing “the challenges that are being faced by Christians in Africa.”
Americans are critical of Trump admin’s religion-related messages
A new poll shows that while Americans have a positive view of Pope Leo, they don’t of how the Trump administration has handled religion-related messaging.
Eighty-seven percent of Americans say they have a negative view of a now-deleted social media post Trump shared last month, appearing to depict himself as Jesus. That includes his own party – with 80% of those who voted for Trump in 2024 and 79% of Republicans viewing it negatively.
Americans also aren’t too keen on a recent prayer by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, in which he prayed for “overwhelming violence of action against those who deserve no mercy” at the Pentagon. Sixty-nine percent said they disliked that prayer.
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