President Trump said he doesn’t owe Pope Leo an apology after lashing out at the first U.S.-born pontiff and insists the controversial AI image he shared on social media, which sparked a backlash among the Christian right, was intended to depict him as a doctor — not Jesus Christ.
“I viewed that as a picture of me being a doctor in fixing — you had the Red Cross right there, you had, you know, medical people surrounding me,” Trump said in an interview with CBS News on Monday, seemingly referring to what appeared to be a nurse in the image. “And I was like the doctor, you know, as a little fun playing the doctor and making people better. So that’s what it was viewed as. That’s what most people thought.”
Trump said he was surprised by the outcry over the image, which he posted to his Truth Social account late Sunday. It was removed on Monday.
The image Trump posted late Sunday.
(Truth Social/@realDonaldTrump)
“Normally I don’t like doing that, but I didn’t want to have anybody be confused,” Trump said when asked why he took down the photo. “People were confused.”
Vice President JD Vance, a converted Catholic who is promoting an upcoming book about his faith, defended his boss. On Monday, he told Fox News that the post was a “joke” and that Trump took it down “because he realized that a lot of people weren’t understanding his humor.”
What Trump said about the pope
On Sunday night, Trump lashed out at Leo in a post on Truth Social, calling him “WEAK on crime” and “terrible for Foreign Policy.”
“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,” Trump wrote, referring to the U.S. capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. “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.”
Leo has emerged as one of the most vocal critics of the Iran war. During a prayer service in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome on Saturday, Leo said that a “delusion of omnipotence” is fueling the U.S.-Israel war in Iran, now in its seventh week.
“Enough of the idolatry of self and money!” Leo said during the service. “Enough of the display of power! Enough of war! True strength is shown in serving life.”
The president told CBS News that he had watched a “60 Minutes” segment highlighting Leo’s disapproval of the Iran war before firing off the post.
Pope Leo with Vice President JD Vance last May.
(Simone Risoluti Vatican Media via Vatican Pool/Getty Images)
Trump also claimed that he was the reason Leo was chosen as the first U.S.-born pope.
“Leo should be thankful because, as everyone knows, he was a shocking surprise,” he wrote. “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.”
Trump said that he preferred the pope’s eldest brother, Louis, because of his support for the MAGA movement — “He gets it, and Leo doesn’t!” the president wrote — and offered Leo some unsolicited advice: “Stop catering to the Radical Left, and focus on being a Great Pope, not a Politician.”
Trump, who spent the weekend in Florida, doubled down on his critique after arriving in Washington, D.C., late Sunday, saying, “I’m not a big fan of Pope Leo. He’s a very liberal person.”
While speaking to reporters outside of the Oval Office on Monday, Trump was asked whether he owed Leo an apology.
“No, I don’t,” the president replied. “Because Pope Leo said things that are wrong. He was very much against what I’m doing with regard to Iran, and you cannot have a nuclear Iran. Pope Leo would not be happy with the end result.”
How Pope Leo responded
Leo dismissed President Trump’s criticisms on Monday, telling reporters traveling with him aboard the papal plane at the start of an 11-day trip to Africa that he has “no fear of the Trump administration.”
”I will continue to speak out strongly against war, seeking to promote peace, promoting dialogue and multilateralism among states to find solutions to problems,” Leo said. “Too many people are suffering today. Too many innocent people have been killed, and I believe someone must stand up and say that there is a better way.’’
“I have no fear of the Trump administration, or speaking out loudly of the message of the Gospel, and that’s what I believe I am called to do,” Leo told journalists. “We are not politicians. We are not looking to make foreign policy.”
“I don’t want to get into a debate with him,” the pope added. “I don’t think that the message of the Gospel is meant to be abused in the way that some people are doing.”
Last May, Trump welcomed Chicago-born Leo’s papal election as a “great honor” for the United States. And in his first year as pontiff, Leo had largely avoided directly criticizing the Trump administration. But the pope’s conciliatory tone has changed in recent weeks amid the Iran war.
After Trump threatened to wipe out “a whole civilization,” the pope said it was “truly unacceptable” and urged people to speak out against attacks on civilian infrastructure — a “sign of the hatred, the division, the destruction human beings are capable of” and a violation of international law.
Trump is no stranger to pope fights
The president clashed with Leo’s predecessor, Pope Francis, even before his first term in office.
In the 2016 presidential campaign, Francis was sharply critical of Trump’s plan to build a wall along the U.S. southern border with Mexico.
“A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not Christian,” Francis said.
Trump fired back: “For a religious leader to question a person’s faith is disgraceful.”
In his first year as president, Trump met with Francis at the Vatican, posing for a photo with the pontiff alongside first lady Melania Trump and his daughter, Ivanka Trump.
“He is something. We had a fantastic meeting,” Trump later told reporters.
Ivanka Trump, first lady Melania Trump, President Trump and Pope Francis in 2017.
(Vatican Pool/Corbis via Getty Images)
In a letter to U.S. Catholic Bishops at the beginning of Trump’s second term, Francis referred to the Trump administration’s mass deportations as a “major crisis.”
“The act of deporting people who in many cases have left their own land for reasons of extreme poverty, insecurity, exploitation, persecution or serious deterioration of the environment, damages the dignity of many men and women, and of entire families,” Francis wrote, “and places them in a state of particular vulnerability and defenselessness.”
