It seems that President Donald Trump got the pope pretty cross.
On Sunday, Pope Leo XIV condemned Trump’s decision to drag the United States into Israel’s messy conflict by launching strikes on three Iranian nuclear sites.
“War does not solve problems; on the contrary, it amplifies them and inflicts deep wounds on the history of peoples, which take generations to heal,” Leo wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “No armed victory can compensate for the pain of mothers, the fear of children, or stolen futures. May diplomacy silence the weapons! May nations chart their futures with works of peace, not with violence and bloodstained conflicts!”
Although Leo never mentioned Trump by name in his tweet, some X users felt that his criticism was squarely aimed at the president.
“Not the Pope subtweeting the President of the United States!” one user wrote.
“Yea the Pope definitely didn’t vote for Trump in 2024 lmao,” another joked.
Others were just relieved that at least one leader was communicating to the masses like an actual adult.
“I would not have predicted when I was 18 that the Pope would be one of the sanest voices in international politics. So help us God,” a user said.
“Folks, it’s truly the end times: I followed the pope 😭,” another user quipped.
The pope’s tweet echoes remarks he made over the weekend during his regular Sunday address at the Vatican, in which he criticized the “alarming news” of Trump’s decision to bomb Iran. In his Sunday address, Leo also expressed his fear that the escalating drama in the Middle East would overshadow the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
“The daily suffering of the population—especially in Gaza and other territories—risks being forgotten, even as the need for adequate humanitarian aid becomes ever more urgent,” he said.
This is not the first time Leo has expressed his disapproval of Trump, albeit his more direct criticisms occurred before he became the pope in May. In 2015, the then-bishop shared a now-deleted opinion piece written by Cardinal Timothy Dolan in The Washington Post titled, “Why Donald Trump’s Anti-Immigrant Rhetoric Is So Problematic.”
In February, he shared an article on social media that took aim at the vice president with the headline: “JD Vance Is Wrong: Jesus Doesn’t Ask Us To Rank Our Love For Others.”
