President Trump on Thursday pushed back against Pope Leo XIV amid their public feud, insisting that he’s “all about the Gospel” but it doesn’t mean he can allow Iran to have nuclear weapons.
“I want him to preach the Gospel,” Mr. Trump said of the pontiff. “I’m all about the Gospel, but I also know that you cannot let a certain country, which is a very mean-spirited country, have a nuclear weapon. If they did, they would use [it], and I think they’d use it quickly and then they would kill many millions of people.”
The president said, “I’m all about the Gospel. I’m about it as much as anyone can be. But I can’t allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon.”
Mr. Trump’s remarks came after the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops rebuked the president, saying Pope Leo’s opposition to the Iran war is an example of him preaching the Gospel, which is Jesus Christ’s message of salvation in the Bible.
The president and the pope, the world’s two most influential Americans, have had a very sharp back-and-forth in recent days over the war. Mr. Trump said he has nothing against the pope, but the two men disagree on Iran.
“I can disagree with the pope. I have a right to disagree with the pope,” he said.
On Monday, Mr. Trump issued a scathing social media post lambasting Leo as “weak on crime” and “terrible for foreign policy.”
“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,” Mr. Trump wrote.
He asserted that the pope was catering to the “radical left” and “it’s hurting him very badly, and, more importantly, it’s hurting the Catholic Church.”
Leo fired back Monday, saying he isn’t afraid of Mr. Trump and vowed to keep raising his voice against the Iran war. It is extremely unusual for a pope to respond so publicly and swiftly against a foreign leader.
“I have no fear of the Trump administration, or speaking out loudly of the message of the Gospel, which is what I believe I am here to do, what the church is here to do,” the pope told reporters aboard his plane to Algiers.
