Politics

Trump Attacks the Pope — and May Be Losing Catholics

By Mike Harper · April 14, 2026

President Trump picked a fight this weekend that most political strategists would have strongly advised against — a public, escalating feud with the first American pope.

Trump unloaded on Pope Leo XIV Sunday night via Truth Social, calling him “WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy” and suggesting Leo should “stop catering to the Radical Left, and focus on being a Great Pope, not a Politician.” He claimed Leo was only elected pope because he was American — a move designed, Trump implied, to deal with Trump himself. He then followed the post with an AI-generated image depicting himself as a Christ-like figure with glowing hands healing a man in a hospital bed. The image was later deleted.

The backlash was swift — and it came from Trump’s own coalition.

David Brody, a prominent Trump-supporting commentator with the Christian Broadcasting Network, posted: “TAKE THIS DOWN, MR. PRESIDENT. You’re not God. None of us are. This goes too far.” Bishop Robert Barron, a member of Trump’s own Religious Liberty Commission who had applauded the president as an Easter guest at the White House just days earlier, called the Truth Social attack on Leo “entirely inappropriate and disrespectful” and said Trump owes the pope an apology.

Trump’s response at the White House Monday was defiant. “There’s nothing to apologize for. He’s wrong.”

The political stakes here are significant. According to CNN’s analysis, Trump won between 55% and 59% of Catholic voters in 2024 — apparently the best performance by any presidential candidate in decades. But Pew Research data shows his approval among white Catholics has already slipped from 59% in February 2025 to 52% in January 2026. That erosion predates the pope fight.

Leo is not just any pope. He’s a Chicago-born South Sider who speaks in unaccented English, the first American to lead the Catholic Church, and someone whose criticisms of the Iran war land differently than those of a foreign leader. His trigger for Trump’s attack was a weekend remark suggesting a “delusion of omnipotence” is fueling the conflict. Leo has also previously criticized the administration’s immigration enforcement, saying those who support “inhuman treatment of immigrants” are not necessarily pro-life.

Leo’s response to Trump’s attack Monday was brief and direct. He has “no fear” of the administration, he said, citing the Gospel.

Archbishop Paul Coakley, head of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said he was “disheartened” by Trump’s comments. A University of Notre Dame political scientist told reporters the exchange is unprecedented in American history — and that if it doesn’t shift Catholic opinion, it will be “a watershed moment” in how far American Catholics are willing to follow a president over their own pope.

Six months from the midterms, that’s the question nobody in either party can answer yet.