As tensions between President Trump and Pope Leo XIV continue to rise, Vice President JD Vance, a Catholic, joined the fray. “I certainly think that in some cases, it would be best for the Vatican to stick to matters of morality, and let the President of the United States stick to dictating American public policy,” Vance told Brett Baier on Monday, April 13.
The vice president attempted to downplay the clash, saying, “When they’re in conflict, they’re in conflict. I don’t worry about it too much, Bret. I think it’s a natural thing. I’m sure it will happen in the future, and it’s not that big of a deal that it happened in the past.”
“We certainly have a good relationship with the Vatican,” he continued, “but we’re also [going to] disagree on substantive questions from time to time. I think that’s a totally reasonable thing. It isn’t particularly newsworthy,” the vice president concluded.
JD Vance defends Trump and tells Pope Leo to stick to 'matters of morality.' The Vice President says he’s not concerned over the President and Pope clashing.
— Catholics for Catholics 🇺🇲 (@CforCatholics) April 14, 2026
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He also dismissed the controversial image that Trump posted depicting himself as Jesus a “joke” and that “a lot of people weren’t understanding his humor in that case.”
Also on Monday, John Yep, President of Catholics for Catholics, published a statement saying that the president’s pointed attack on the pope was “disheartening” and the blasphemous AI image is “as dangerous as it is scandalous to all Christians. The speed with which the picture was removed confirms the mistake that it was.”
Since March, Pope Leo XIV has called for a ceasefire between the United States and Iran and warned of a “tragedy of enormous proportions” if the war continued. His messaging consistently called for deescalation.
On the Monday after Easter, President Trump posted on his platform, Truth Social, that “an entire civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again” referring to Iran if they did not open the Straits of Hormuz and submit to the United States’ demands. Pope Leo XIV said the president’s message was “truly unacceptable” and implored everyone to think of the innocent people, including children and the elderly, who would suffer from an escalation of war.
POTUS, in turn, said that the Holy Father should “focus on the Church, not foreign policy” – but Pope Leo XIV continued his messaging.
Tensions reached a head when President Trump attacked Pope Leo XIV in a lengthy post on Truth on April 12, calling him “WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy.” The president said he liked the pope’s brother, Louis, better, because he is “all MAGA” and that he doesn’t “want a Pope who thinks it’s terrible that America attacked Venezuela” and “who criticizes the President of the United States because I’m doing exactly what I was elected to do.”
“Leo should be thankful because, as everyone knows, he was a shocking surprise,” Trump continued in his post. “He wasn’t on any list to be Pope, and he 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.”
Catholics For Catholics Statement On President Trump’s Attack On Pope Leo XIV
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