Image Credit: Vatican Pool / Contributor / Getty Images 
Back in May 2025, when Pope Leo XIV was chosen—the first American ever to occupy the papal seat—I predicted a test of “ultimate loyalty” for Americans in the coming months and years. I didn’t say exactly when it would come, only that it would. Now, I think, it may be here.
That’s bad news.
There had been some pretty loose talk that Robert Prevost would finally be a “based” pope, largely because his brother is one of those boomers who posts memes on Facebook about Michelle Obama’s ding-dong, pours Monster on his cornflakes at breakfast, and has a tiny Asian wife whose name he either can’t pronounce or can’t remember—maybe both.
But John Prevost had disappointing news even before his brother donned the papal tiara. He had no doubt, he said, that his brother would be “following in [Pope] Francis’s footsteps.”
“I know he’s not happy with what’s going on with immigration,” the brother said, as he rode his lawnmower.
“I know that for a fact. How far he’ll go with it is anyone’s guess, but he won’t just sit back. I don’t think he’ll be the silent one.”
Pope Francis had spent the last few weeks of his life criticising Trump and his flagship policy of mass deportation. In February 2025, he wrote a letter to America’s Catholic bishops telling them that Trump’s plan to turn 20 million illegals into squirty cheese was a “crisis” and would damage “the dignity of many men and women.”
Franco’s also used the letter to criticise JD Vance’s understanding of the ordo amoris, the scheme of “rightly ordered love” which the Vice President had invoked to justify Trump’s immigration policy.
Vance handled the Pope’s criticism with grace, saying as a “baby Catholic”—i.e. a recent convert—he still had much to learn.
Truth is, Francis had always hated Trump. He was just making the most of his final moments to say what he’d wanted to say all along. During the 2016 election campaign, he had travelled to the Mexican border and said it was “not the Gospel” to think “only about building walls” rather than “building bridges,” directly implying Trump was not a Christian.
Of course, it would be nice to have a Pope who supports the idea of borders and national sovereignty, rather than one whose beliefs and public pronouncements differ little from those of an overweight female middle-school teacher with rainbow-colored hair and cat fur all over her sweater.
Still, a man can dream.
Catholicism has been a live political issue for Americans since the Foundation, and the issue of “dual loyalty” stalked American Catholics long before Israel was even a twinkle in Lord Balfour’s eye. Because Prevost is American, I predicted he would feel more intense pressure than an Argentine or a Pole to speak about events in America and, inevitably, to condemn them. This, I predicted, would set him on a collision course with President Trump. It was only a matter of time.
Anyway, I think the moment has come, but it isn’t immigration that’s done it.
In recent weeks, Pope Leo has been increasingly outspoken about the Iran war. This culminated in a prayer vigil on Saturday night at which Leo condemned the “idolatry of the self” and the “delusion of omnipotence” that he believes is motivating the war. This was obviously a reference to Trump, even if his name wasn’t mentioned.
Leo also appeared to take a swipe at Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, saying God does not hear the prayers of world leaders with “hands full of blood” or “who wage war.” Hegseth has led prayers at the Pentagon during the war and publicly in front of the press.
President Trump blasted back on Sunday night.
“Pope Leo is WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
“I don’t want a Pope who thinks it’s OK for Iran to have a Nuclear Weapon. I don’t want a Pope who thinks it’s terrible that America attacked Venezuela, a Country that was sending massive amounts of Drugs into the United States and, even worse, emptying their prisons, including murderers, drug dealers, and killers, into our Country,” he continued.
“And I don’t want a Pope who criticizes the President of the United States because I’m doing exactly what I was elected, IN A LANDSLIDE, to do, setting Record Low Numbers in Crime, and creating the Greatest Stock Market in History.”
Afterwards, Trump posted an AI-generated image of himself as a Jesus-like figure tending to a sick man, a golden halo crowning his golden head.
Trump needs to be careful. Whatever he thinks about the Pope, Catholics are a vital constituency for him. Catholics supported him over Kamala Harris by a 15-point margin, 56% to 41%, according to The Washington Post. Other pollsters had the margin slightly less—between 7% and 12%— but regardless, it was significant. More importantly, it was a big swing from 2020, when Biden either split the Catholic vote down the middle or very narrowly lost it.
All the evidence suggests Catholic voters clinched key battleground states like Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and North Carolina for Trump in 2024.
Catholics are 25% of the electorate in Pennsylvania.
Does Trump really want to alienate American Catholics as well now, with everything that’s happening? Does he really want to force them to choose between their patriotic loyalty to America and their spiritual loyalty to Rome and to God?
The midterms are six months away.
I’ve even seen people saying Trump’s outburst could even lose him the upcoming Supreme Court decision on birthright citizenship, which will be decided by Amy Coney Barrett—a cradle Catholic. For what it’s worth, I think she’ll vote to strike down Trump’s order not because she’s Catholic, but because she adopted two African children and already seems to hate Trump for some reason or other. He was the one who nominated her for the Supreme Court, remember. No good turn goes unpunished. What a depressing thought…
Thankfully, Trump does appear to have backed off a little after his outburst. He removed the AI-generated image of himself, and in characteristic fashion he’s now saying he wasn’t supposed to be Jesus at all. He was Mohammed. Or was it Buddha? No, wait, he was just an ordinary doctor with a halo round his head! Makes sense.
Actually, it doesn’t have to make sense. It just has to work. Anything to hold together the MAGA coalition as it comes apart at the seams.
