In a speech last month, the head of the Catholic Church said God rejected the prayers of leaders who start wars and have their “hands full of blood” in a reference to the US president.
He also called the conflict in Iran “atrocious” and urged Trump to find an “off-ramp” and “decrease the amount of violence”.
Separately, he described the president’s recent threat to destroy Iranian civilisation as “truly unacceptable” and called for dialogue.
He offered more thinly veiled criticism after the US raided Venezuela and abducted its president, Nicolas Maduro, saying in January that “war is back in vogue and a zeal for war is spreading”.
Pope Leo has further questioned Trump’s “inhuman” immigration policies, saying he was uncertain whether they were “pro-life”.
In response, the president gave the faith leader a withering assessment of his own overnight.
Posting on his own social network, Truth Social, he accused him of being “WEAK on crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy”.
He wrote: “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, a Country that was sending massive amounts of Drugs into the United States and, even worse, emptying their prisons, including murderers, drug dealers, and killers, into our Country.”
He also said the Catholic Church had only elevated the Chicago-born cardinal in a bid to curry favour with himself.
“If I wasn’t in the White House, Leo wouldn’t be in the Vatican,” he wrote.
He concluded: “Leo 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.
“It’s hurting him very badly and, more importantly, it’s hurting the Catholic Church!”
Share on Facebook
Share on X