Pope Leo XVI waves to the crowd gathered at St. Peter’s Basilica following his selection as pope in 2025. (Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)
Another Poor Decision by Donald Trump
Verbally attacking the spiritual leader of roughly 1.4 billion people is not a good idea, especially if you’re a morally bankrupt felon and alleged pedophile. But Donald Trump cannot seem to help himself. Thus, we come to the story of a pope, a president and a one-sided fight.
Trump destroys everything he touches, has alienated nearly every ally the U.S. once had and is rapidly running the U.S. economy into the ground. Then, he decides to alienate American Catholics, who were already upset by his blasphemous AI post depicting himself as Christ and an earlier a post of himself as pope.
Trump’s AI post of himself as a pope was ill-conceived. He also made an error in judgment when he challenged Pope Leo to a one-sided fight. (Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)
A Likely Motive
Soon after Trump began his verbal assault against the pope, CNN posted a story about a possible motive for Trump’s one-sided fight, and it’s a good theory.
In a poll conducted by Hart Research Associates/Public Opinion Strategies in late February-early March, American voters were surveyed to determine how they feel about various public figures such as Trump, Pope Leo, Vice President JD Vance, Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA), late-night talk show host Stephen Colbert and others. The survey also looked at people’s opinions about organizations such as the Democratic and Republican parties and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Pope Leo XIV received the highest percentage of positive responses at 42 percent. Trump’s TV nemesis, late-night talk show host Stephen Colbert, had the second highest rating. Trump had the third highest negative rating at 53 percent. Only ICE (56 percent) and Iran (61 percent) had lower ratings. In comparison, the pope had an extremely low negative response at 8 percent, according to the poll.
The survey was conducted before Trump attacked Iran, posted the AI image of himself as Christ, and raged at the pope when the pope criticized American immigration and foreign policies. Even without those factors, the pope trounced Trump.
Popes have a duty to speak out against actions that fly in the face of Christ’s teachings. War and mistreating immigrants fall into that category.
The Pope…
Pope Leo XIV responded to Trump’s one-sided fight with a statement worthy of a pope. “I don’t want to get into a debate with him. I don’t believe the message of the gospel is meant to be abused in the way some people are doing, and I will continue to speak out….”
Vance and House speaker Mike Johnson then jumped to Trump’s defense, but it was clear that none of these three men could match Pope Leo’s intelligence or class.
Many posts on Facebook praised Pope Leo. “Well… the Pope has standards! He knows not to debate fools,” one person wrote on Facebook. “As an American, can the Pope run for President of the United States under the Democratic party in 2028?” another asked. One person had this to say: “Leo is My Pope! Having an American Pope is a game changer! I’m enjoying & btw, I’m Jewish!”
Yet another said, “He is so intelligent and knowledgeable and very sincere, if we all opened our eyes and hearts we would pray for peace. Just imagine if there was no hate, the world would be a much better place. Just try it for one day.”
The President…
Within the past month, Trump has been busy with issues other than his one-sided fight with the pope…
- Damaging America’s economy as much as he can and causing gas prices to skyrocket
- Conducting an illegal war against Iran
- Threatening to commit genocide by obliterating Iran’s civilian infrastructure, specifically its power plants and bridges
- Committing blasphemy by posting an AI image of himself as Jesus Christ
- Targeting large numbers of immigrants for deportation.
Some Trump supporters have said their hero crossed the line when he threatened to commit genocide, while others cited his blasphemous AI post of himself as Christ as the final straw. But quite a few cited rising gas prices rather than any number of truly terrible things Trump has done to hurt people.
For me, Trump crossed the line prior to the 2016 presidential election when he ridiculed a disabled reporter. It was cruel, deeming and totally inappropriate. That one incident told me all I needed to know about Donald Trump.
A Reason to Hope
“The more Trump and these forces reveal themselves for what they are, the more that decent people – whether they call themselves Republican or Democrat, conservative or progressive, right or left, American or non-American – are recoiling from them,” according to former U.S. secretary of labor Robert Reich. Like the pope, Reich, a professor of public policy at Berkeley, has been highly critical of Trump’s illegal war.
Yet, the former labor secretary is hopeful. “We are starting to win because Trump and the forces he unleashed are so deeply repulsive to the consciences of most Americans and much of the rest of humanity,” Reich said in an article on AlterNet, a progressive online news magazine.
Trump’s God Complex
Pope Leo’s reminders about morality are desperately needed. Some Americans have not been able tell the difference between right and wrong despite claiming to be Christians. It apparently didn’t bother many of them that Trump said he could “do anything” to women because he was a “star.” “Grab ‘em by the p***y. You can do anything,” he said on an infamous tape. (He’s completely wrong on that point.)
And a number of Trump supporters have compared Trump to God. The White House faith leader Paula White-Cain committed blasphemy when she said that saying “no” to Trump was like saying “no” to God. A right-wing lawyer who represented several of the Jan. 6 insurrectionists once tweeted, “As Christ was crucified, and then rose again on the 3rd day, so too will Donald Trump.”
Trump also compared himself to Christ on April 1, when he said, “On Palm Sunday, Jesus entered Jerusalem as crowds welcomed him with praise honoring him as king. They call me king now. Can you believe it?” (No, I can’t. I have never heard anyone call Donald Trump a king. – GB)
A Better Comparison
Fellow Patheos contributor Rebecca Hamilton made a more appropriate comparison when she likened Trump to an angry copperhead snake.. She also assessed American society quite well when she said, “We may go to church, but our values are essentially Anti-Christ” in her Patheos article, You Cannot Follow Both Jesus Christ and Donald Trump.
Hamilton is a Catholic who contributes to Patheos. I’m a lifelong Protestant, and I think her articles are spot on.
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