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  "path": "/news/1991310/trump-says-not-a-big-fan-of-pope-leo-after-his-anti-war-message",
  "publishedAt": "2026-04-13T07:47:12.000Z",
  "site": "https://www.dawn.com",
  "tags": [
    "World",
    "denied reports",
    "Middle East",
    "Venezuela.",
    "genocidal threats",
    "hailed",
    "peace talks"
  ],
  "textContent": "US President Donald Trump told reporters on Sunday that he is “not a big fan” of Pope Leo XIV, after the global leader of Catholics made a plea for peace amid the war in the Middle East.\n\nThe 70-year-old American pope publicly implored leaders on Saturday to end the violence, telling worshippers at St Peter’s Basilica: “Enough of the idolatry of self and money! Enough of the display of power! Enough of war!”.\n\n“I’m not a big fan of Pope Leo. He’s a very liberal person, and he’s a man who doesn’t believe in stopping crime,” Trump told reporters at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland.\n\nHe accused the pontiff of “toying with a country that wants a nuclear weapon.”\n\nTrump later doubled down on his comments to reporters with a post on Truth Social, saying: “I don’t want a Pope who thinks it’s OK for Iran to have a Nuclear Weapon.”\n\n“Pope Leo is WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy,” he said.\n\n> The president added that Leo had only been elected “because he was an American, and they thought that would be the best way to deal with President Donald J. Trump.”\n\n“If I wasn’t in the White House, Leo wouldn’t be in the Vatican.” Trump later posted an AI-generated image of himself.\n\nIn the image, the president appears dressed in red and white robes as he cures a man with his healing hand. The American flag is shown over his shoulder.\n\nTrump and the White House have previously shared AI-generated images, including one that showed the president dressed as the pope.\n\n## Rejecting a rift\n\nWashington and the Vatican have rejected reports of a rift.\n\nOn Friday, a Vatican official denied reports that a top Pentagon official gave the church’s envoy to the United States a “bitter lecture” over Pope Leo’s criticisms of the Trump administration.\n\nThe story in the _Free Press_ —which the Pentagon had already dismissed as “distorted” — reported that Cardinal Christophe Pierre was summoned in January to the Pentagon, where he was given a dressing-down by US Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby.\n\nThe military official reportedly told the cardinal that the United States “has the military power to do whatever it wants — and that the Church had better take its side.”\n\nVatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said in a statement “the account presented by certain media outlets regarding this meeting does not correspond to the truth in any way.”\n\nWhile both parties insist the meeting was cordial, the Holy See and the White House have openly been at odds over the Trump administration’s hardline mass deportation campaign — which the pope called “inhuman” — and the use of military force in the Middle East and Venezuela.\n\nWhen Trump made genocidal threats against Iran — saying “A whole civilisation will die tonight, never to be brought back again” — the pontiff slammed the “truly unacceptable” statement and urged parties to “come back to the table” for negotiations.\n\nEarlier this month, Pope Leo hailed the news of a ceasefire between the United States and Iran as a “sign of real hope.”\n\nBut peace talks between the United States and Iran, held in Islamabad, ended abruptly and without a resolution on Saturday, with US Vice President JD Vance telling reporters after a marathon-session of talks that Washington has delivered its “final and best offer”.",
  "title": "Trump says ‘not a big fan’ of Pope Leo after his anti-war message"
}