WASHINGTON, April 13 (dpa) – US President Donald Trump launched a sharp attack on Pope Leo XIV, calling the pontiff “terrible” for foreign policy and “WEAK on Crime” in a lengthy post on Truth Social, deepening tensions with the Vatican.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump on Sunday criticized the pope’s positions on global conflicts, saying he did not want a pontiff who considered it acceptable for Iran to possess nuclear weapons or who opposed US action against Venezuela. He also accused Leo of aligning with political opponents and urged him to “get his act together.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The US president further suggested Leo’s election was influenced by his US nationality, writing the pope should be “thankful” and adding: “If I wasn’t in the White House, Leo wouldn’t be in the Vatican.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump’s comments followed a sermon by Leo on Saturday in which he called for an end to wars and urged world leaders to halt hostilities and pursue peace. Speaking during a prayer service in St Peter’s Basilica, the pope declared: “Enough of the display of power! Enough of war!”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Leo, who leads about 1.4 billion Catholics worldwide, warned against “delusion of omnipotence” and in recent days has stepped up criticism of the conflict involving Iran, condemning threats against the country as “truly unacceptable.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The US and Israel launched a large-scale bombing campaign against Iran on February 28, prompting Tehran to retaliate with attacks across the Middle East, with a fragile ceasefire now in place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The pope, the first US-born leader of the Catholic Church, has emerged as a critic of Trump’s foreign policy amid escalating tensions over the Middle East.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
–NNN-dpa<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
WASHINGTON, April 13 (dpa) – US President Donald Trump launched a sharp attack on Pope Leo XIV, calling the pontiff “terrible” for foreign policy and “WEAK on Crime” in a lengthy post on Truth Social, deepening tensions with the Vatican. Trump on Sunday criticized the pope’s positions on global conflicts, saying he did not want […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":325337,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[208,217,291,316,341],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325625"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/40"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=325625"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325625\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":325627,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325625\/revisions\/325627"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/325337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=325625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=325625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=325625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}