President Donald Trump sharply rebuked Pope Leo XIV in remarks to reporters and in a social media post on Sunday, calling the first American leader of the Catholic church “WEAK on crime” and “terrible for Foreign Policy.”

Subscribe to read this story ad-free

Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.

“I don’t think he’s doing a very good job. He likes crime, I guess,” Trump told reporters at Joint Base Andrews when asked about his lengthy Truth Social post Sunday night criticizing the pontiff.

“We don’t like a pope that’s going to say that it’s okay to have a nuclear weapon. We don’t want a pope that says crime is okay in our cities. I don’t like it. I’m not a big fan of Pope Leo,” Trump added.

The Vatican did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The pope last week criticized Trump’s public threats to “wipe out” Iranian civilization, saying that “attacks on civilian infrastructure is against international law,” and urging people to contact leaders and congressmen to call for peace. He has urged Trump to end the war in Iran, and lamented in his Easter message last week that the world is “becoming indifferent” to violence. Leo had also previously criticized the Trump administration’s immigration policies.

“Leo should be thankful because, as everyone knows, he was a shocking surprise. He wasn’t on any list to be Pope, and 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,” Trump said in a Truth Social post.

Trump hasn’t always been critical of Leo. At the time, Trump called the pope’s May 2025 election “an honor for our country.”

“It’s such a great honor for our country to have an American pope. I mean, what greater honor could there be? That we were a little bit surprised, very happy. But just a great, absolutely great honor,” Trump said at the time.

A March NBC News poll found U.S. voters viewed Pope Leo more favorably than the president. 42% of respondents said they had a positive view of the pope, while just 8% had a negative view of him. While 41% of respondents said they had a positive view of Trump, 53% said they had a negative view of him.