Pope Leo XIV says the world is “being ravaged by a handful of tyrants,” in the latest escalation of his feud with Donald Trump.
The pontiff, on a trip to Cameroon, urged a “decisive change of course” and denounced leaders who use religion as a basis to justify war.
His uncharacteristically strong words come just days after Trump attacked the Chicago-born pope on Truth Social for criticizing his war in Iran.
“The masters of war pretend not to know that it takes only a moment to destroy, yet often a lifetime is not enough to rebuild,” Leo said.
“They turn a blind eye to the fact that billions of dollars are spent on killing and devastation, yet the resources needed for healing, education, and restoration are nowhere to be found,” he went on, further condemning what he described as “an endless cycle of destabilization and death.”
He later followed up with an equally stark post on X: “Woe to those who manipulate religion and the very name of God for their own military, economic, and political gain, dragging that which is sacred into darkness and filth.”
Tensions between the pope and the White House boiled over at the weekend after CBS aired a 60 Minutes segment in which several prominent American cardinals echoed Leo’s criticisms of Trump administration policies.
Trump responded to the segment by posting a 334-word tirade on Truth Social, attacking Leo for being “WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy, while also taking swipes at Catholic church measures during COVID-19 and even going so far as to claim the American pontiff would not have been elected last year “if I wasn’t in the White House.”
The president then followed up with an AI-generated image of himself as Jesus Christ. The since-deleted post featured the president wearing a robe and, with radiant hands, healing a sick hospital patient while surrounded by bald eagles, fireworks, and fighter jets.
Trump, in the face of intense backlash from his own support base, has since sought to write the stunt off as a joke, bizarrely claiming the image somehow portrayed him “as a doctor.”
He later posted another doctored image of himself with Jesus.
Leo was, until now, decidedly more restrained in his response to Trump’s rage-posting.
He told reporters aboard his flight to Algiers on Tuesday, marking the start of an 11-day tour of Africa, that his remarks were “certainly not meant as attacks on anyone,” while at the same time remarking there was a certain “irony” to Trump’s social media website being called Truth Social.
The pope, the first in history to be born in the United States, has been consistently critical of Trump since becoming head of the Catholic Church last year.
He has repeatedly denounced the president’s mass deportation agenda, calling it “extremely disrespectful” to immigrant communities, while taking aim at the administration’s mounting aggression on the world stage, in particular, Trump’s invasion of Venezuela and his ongoing war with Iran.
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment on this story.
