Three American cardinals have spoken out against the Trump administration in a searing rebuke of the president’s policies on 60 Minutes.
Without directly mentioning his name, Pope Leo, the first U.S.-born leader of the Catholic Church, has been vocal in his opposition to many of Trump’s policies, including his warmongering in Iran and his actions in Venezuela.
On Sunday night’s episode, 60 Minutes referenced the pope’s criticisms in its segment with Cardinals Robert McElroy, Jeffrey Tobin and Blase Cupich, specifically mentioning Trump’s war with Iran. The episode marks their first-ever joint interview.
“It’s an abominable regime, and it should be removed,” McElroy told CBS’ Norah O’Donnell. “But this is a war of choice that we went to, and I think it’s embedded in a wider moment in the United States that’s worrying, which is this: We’re seeing before us the possibility of war after war after war.”
The trio’s interview comes days after Leo addressed Trump’s actions in Iran. Without mentioning him by name, he called for “the leaders of nations” to end the conflict.
“There are certainly binding responsibilities that fall to the leaders of nations. To them we cry out: Stop! It is time for peace! Sit at the table of dialogue and mediation, not at the table where rearmament is planned, and deadly actions are decided,” he told attendees at a prayer vigil at St. Peter’s Basilica.
Then, in a Palm Sunday service, he appeared to reference Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, telling worshippers that Jesus “does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war.”
Hegseth, who is Christian but not a Catholic, led a prayer service at the Pentagon last month in which he called for “overwhelming violence.”
On 60 Minutes, Chicago’s Cardinal Cupich also expressed concern with the “gamification” of war seen in the White House’s messaging, which has included bizarre mashups of footage from video games spliced in between real-world footage of strikes carried out by U.S. forces in Iran.
“We’re dehumanizing the victims of war by turning the suffering of people and the killing of children and our own soldiers into entertainment,” Cupich said. In a statement published last month, Cupich condemned a video the White House had posted featuring footage of missiles being fired in Iran alongside a range of Hollywood films as “sickening.”
“It is sickening,” Cupich told O’Donnell on Sunday. “To splice together movie cuts with actual bombing and targeting of people for the purposes of entertainment is sickening. This is not who we are. We’re better than this.”
Cardinal Tobin, the Archbishop of Newark, doubled down on his description of ICE as a “lawless organization” following the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in January.
“I didn’t say that they were people without law,” he clarified before continuing. “But when people act in this way, when they have to hide their identities to terrify people, when they can actually violate other guarantees of our Constitution and Bill of Rights, well I think somebody’s got to call that out and I’m not the only one.”
Pope Leo himself has also criticized the Trump administration’s hardline immigration policies, calling them “extremely disrespectful.”
McElroy, who previously served as the Bishop of San Diego, told O’Donnell that while he believed in strong borders and that he felt illegal crossings were “getting out of control,” the Trump administration’s approach is a “roundup of people throughout the country. People who have been living good, strong lives, been here a long time, raised their children here, many of their children born here, and are citizens. That’s what our objection is.”
“I would like to know what Catholics feel about this indiscriminate mass deportation,” Cupich added.
“I think that it’s very clear the American people are saying, ‘We really didn’t vote for this.’”
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.
Shortly after the segment, the president condemned the pope as being “WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy” in a lengthy Truth Social post.
He also claimed credit for Leo’s election as pope, writing, “Leo should be thankful because, as everyone knows, he was a shocking surprise. He wasn’t on any list to be Pope, and was only put there by the Church because he was an American, and they thought that would be the best way to deal with President Donald J. Trump.”
“If I wasn’t in the White House, Leo wouldn’t be in the Vatican.”
