{"id":1602,"date":"2026-05-02T18:30:35","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T18:30:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nextstoryus.com\/?p=1602"},"modified":"2026-05-02T18:30:47","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T18:30:47","slug":"1602","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nextstoryus.com\/?p=1602","title":{"rendered":"Pope Leo takes fierce swipe at Trump, sparking fresh controversy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/kaylestore.b-cdn.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/apqr.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Pope Leo has lashed out against the war in Iran many times. In the mean time, President Donald Trump has replied to the American-born pope, criticizing him for intervening in politics. Now, the leader of the Catholic Church has taken a new swipe at Trump for his war in Iran.<\/p>\n<div class=\"code-block code-block-4\">\n<div data-type=\"_mgwidget\" data-widget-id=\"1828643\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>President Donald Trump and Pope Leo XIV have been feuding over the last week or two. In the mean time, Vice President JD Vance has also joined the conversation and warned the Holy Father last week of being too vocal on \u201cmatters of theology.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As late as last Thursday, Trump claimed that he had no plans to meet with the Holy Father and issued a warning over Iran\u2019s nuclear capabilities.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s very important that the Pope understands\u2026 Iran killed 42,000 people that were totally unarmed. They were protesters. Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. If they did\u2026 every single country in the world would be in trouble,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n<div class=\"code-block code-block-10\">\n<div id=\"kaylestore.net_responsive_2\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>He added that he has \u201cnothing against the pope\u201d but that \u201cI have to do what\u2019s right.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m not fighting with him. The pope made a statement. He says, Iran can have a nuclear weapon. I say Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon,\u201d Trump continued,<\/p>\n<div class=\"code-block code-block-11\">\n<div id=\"kaylestore.net_responsive_3\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"code-block code-block-6\"><\/div>\n<h1><strong>Pope Leo &amp; Donald Trump<\/strong><\/h1>\n<p>The claim made by Donald Trump that Pope Leo has said Iran can have nuclear weapons is not true. In fact, the Holy Father has repeatedly denounced nuclear weapons and made calls for the countries to abandon them.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe situation in Iran and Israel has deteriorated gravely, and in such a delicate moment, I would like to renew strongly an appeal to responsibility and reason,\u201d Pope Leo said In June last year. \u201cThe commitment to creating a safer world, free from the nuclear threat, should be pursued through respectful encounter and sincere dialogue, to build a lasting peace, based on justice, fraternity and the common good.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In the last weeks, Pope Leo has been on a tour in Africa, visiting Algeria, Angola, Equatorial Guinea and Cameroon. It was the pope\u2019s first tour outside of Italy since becoming the leader of the Catholic Church.<\/p>\n<p>After his pastoral visit, while on the plane heading back to the Vatican, the Holy Father once again lashed out against the war in Iran, taking a swipe at Donald Trump.<\/p>\n<div class=\"code-block code-block-3\"><\/div>\n<p>\u201cOne day Iran says \u2018yes,\u2019 the United States says \u2018no,\u2019 and vice versa,\u201d Leo told reporters, per NBC. \u201cWe don\u2019t know where this is going to lead, which has created again this chaotic situation, critical for the world economy.\u201d<\/p>\n<h1><strong>Pope Leo takes new swipe at Trump<\/strong><\/h1>\n<p>Leo broke his silence just as the fragile ceasefire holding since April 8 faces fresh pressure. This time over rising tensions in the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n<p>On Thursday, Trump said the U.S had \u201ctotal control over the Strait of Hormuz,\u201d adding that \u201cIran is having a very hard time figuring out who their leader is.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Later, Iran\u2019s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi posted on X that, \u201cIran\u2019s state institutions continue to act with unity, purpose, and discipline.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>On the plane, Pope Leo issued a further warning to those involved in the war not to forget the civilians.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere is also the entire population of Iran, of innocent people who are suffering because of this war,\u201d the Holy Father, adding that he condemns capital punishment and \u201cthe taking of people\u2019s lives.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo when a regime, when a country, takes decisions which takes away the lives of other people unjustly then obviously that is something that should be condemned,\u201d Pope Leo added.<\/p>\n<div class=\"code-block code-block-2\"><\/div>\n<p>What do you think about this? Please share your thoughts in the comment section.<\/p>\n<div class=\"yarpp yarpp-related yarpp-related-website yarpp-related-none yarpp-template-list\">\n<p>No related posts.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pope Leo has lashed out against the war in Iran many times. In the mean time, President Donald Trump has replied to the American-born pope, criticizing him for intervening in &hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-story","category-story-daily"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nextstoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1602","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nextstoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nextstoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nextstoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nextstoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1602"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/nextstoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1602\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1604,"href":"https:\/\/nextstoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1602\/revisions\/1604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nextstoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nextstoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nextstoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}