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U.S. President Donald Trump said Pope Leo XIV is “wrong on the issues” and should stay out of politics, refusing to back down from a growing feud with the pontiff after watching a “60 Minutes” report on the pope’s opposition to mass deportations and the war with Iran.
The dispute widened as Pope Leo said he had “no fear of the Trump administration” and a friend of the pope said he would “not back down” from defending the moral principles of the Catholic Church.
In a phone interview with CBS News senior correspondent Norah O’Donnell, Trump said he had watched the “60 Minutes” segment before posting a lengthy attack on Truth Social late Sunday in which he called the pope “WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy.”
When asked whether he planned to call the pope directly, Trump gave a firm “no.”
“He’s wrong on the issues,” Trump said of Pope Leo. “I don’t think he should be getting into politics. I think he probably learned that from this.”
Trump also said he did not know whether Pope Leo, the first U.S.-born pontiff, would visit the United States during his presidency.
“I have no idea,” he said. “It’s up to him, not up to me.”
Trump confirmed in the CBS interview that he had watched “60 Minutes,” which highlighted Pope Leo’s disapproval of mass deportations and the Iran war, before publishing his Truth Social post.
The post marked the latest escalation in Trump’s criticism of the pope, which has centered on Leo’s public comments about war, peace and Iran.
Trump said the pope was mistaken in weighing in on such matters and argued that he should not be entering political debates.
Trump also commented on the now-deleted AI-generated image he posted to Truth Social on Sunday night, which depicted him as a Jesus-like figure and drew criticism from parts of the Christian right.
The president said he was surprised by the backlash and described the image as the work of “a very beautiful, talented artist.” He said he believed the image was meant to show him as a doctor, not Jesus.
“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. 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.
Asked why he took the image down, Trump said: “Normally I don’t like doing that, but I didn’t want to have anybody be confused. People were confused.”
Earlier Monday on X, conservative activist Riley Gaines questioned why Trump posted the image, asking: “Does he actually like this?” She added that “a little humility would serve him well” and that “God shall not be mocked.”
When asked whether he removed the image because of criticism from Gaines and others, Trump said no.
“I didn’t listen to Riley Gaines. I’m not a big fan of Riley, actually,” he said.
In the CBS interview, Trump also said he believed he had “done more for the Catholic Church than any president in the last hundred years.”
“During COVID I gave them billions of dollars. They were gonna go under. I gave them billions of dollars for education and that’s not the right way to treat somebody that’s been so good,” he said.
Pope Leo addressed Trump’s Truth Social post while on a flight to Algeria on Monday, saying his remarks were not intended as attacks on anyone.
“The things that I say are certainly not meant as attacks on anyone, and the message of the Gospel is very clear: ‘Blessed are the peacemakers,’” he said.
The pope also said he would not be intimidated by the Trump administration and would continue speaking out.
“I have no fear of the Trump administration, or speaking out loudly of the message of the Gospel, which is what I believe I am here to do, what the church is here to do,” Pope Leo said. “We are not politicians, we don’t deal with foreign policy with the same perspective he might understand it, but I do believe in the message of the Gospel, as a peacemaker.”
His comments echoed earlier remarks in which he said he did not want to “get into a debate” with Trump but would continue speaking out against war, promoting peace, dialogue and multilateral relations among states.
As the feud deepened, one of Pope Leo’s friends and former colleagues said the pontiff would not retreat from what he sees as the Church’s moral responsibility.
Speaking to CNN’s Kaitlin Collins, Father John Lydon said Leo would “not back down” from articulating the moral principles of the Catholic Church despite the escalating dispute with Trump.
“He will not get in the political muck, but he’s not going to back down on the principle values of the gospel, because that’s what his responsibility is to do,” Lydon said.
Lydon, who worked as a missionary with Leo in Peru in the 1990s, said the pope’s views were rooted in long experience and were not a recent reaction to current events.
He said Leo’s time working under an authoritarian regime showed that he is “not somebody that just woke up and decided, well, now is the time to speak about human rights. This is part of his identity.”
“I don’t think this has anything to do with President Trump or whoever might occupy the office at any one time,” Lydon said.
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