Trump doubles down on Pope Leo criticism, attacks Italian PM Meloni over stance on Iran
'He doesn’t understand (the Iran war), he is not the guy that should be talking about war, because he has no idea what’s going on,' Trump said of Pope Leo on Tuesday.
President Donald
TrumpPhoto by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
- 20
Tue Apr 14, 2026 - 4:14 pm EDT
Listen to this article
1 min
(LifeSiteNews) — U.S. President Donald Trump doubled down on his criticism of Pope Leo XIV and expanded his attack to include Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
In a phone interview with the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, Trump said Pope Leo “has no idea what’s going on” in Iran. He accused the Pope of failing to understand how much of a “nuclear threat” the country is.
“(Pope Leo) doesn’t understand it, he is not the guy that should be talking about war, because he has no idea what’s going on. He doesn’t understand that in Iran they killed 42,000 protesters last month. He doesn’t understand that, does he?” Trump said.
This follows a Sunday night social media post where Trump not only claimed that Pope Leo “thinks it’s ok for Iran to have a nuclear weapon” but also criticized him for “catering to the Radical Left” and being “weak on crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy.”
Leo brushed off the attack on Monday, though Italian PM Meloni was one of many who came to the Pope’s defense, calling Trump’s post “unacceptable.”
Prompted by Corriere della Serra to address Meloni’s remarks, Trump said, “She’s unacceptable. She’s unacceptable because she doesn’t mind that Iran has a nuclear weapon and would blow up Italy in two minutes if they had the chance.”
This is a developing story…
TOPICS
TAGGED AS
- Catholic
- Catholic Church
- Donald Trump
- Giorgia Meloni
- Iran
- Iran war
- Italy
- Leo XIV
- Pope Leo
- Pope Leo XIV
- Trump
