Trump attacks Pope Leo as 'weak on crime,' claims pontiff owes his position to him

US President Donald Trump launched a sweeping attack against Pope Leo XIV on Sunday, calling him "weak on crime" and "foreign policy" and claiming the Catholic Church only chose him to manage relations with the Trump administration.

"Pope Leo is WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy," Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform, accusing the pontiff of speaking about "fear" of his administration while ignoring what he described as the persecution of religious figures during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Trump said he preferred the pope's brother, Louis, saying: "I like his brother Louis much better than I like him, because Louis is all MAGA. He gets it, and Leo doesn't."

"I don’t want a Pope who thinks it’s OK for Iran to have a Nuclear Weapon. I don’t want a Pope who thinks it’s terrible that America attacked Venezuela," he said, claiming the South American country had "emptied their prisons, including murderers, drug dealers, and killers, into our Country."

Arguing that Leo's elevation to the papacy was directly tied to his own presidency, Trump said: "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."

"Leo should get his act together as Pope, use Common Sense, stop catering to the Radical Left, and focus on being a Great Pope, not a Politician," Trump wrote, claiming that the pope's current trajectory "is hurting the Catholic Church."

Asked why he attacked the pope, Trump told reporters after arriving at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland that "I don’t think he’s doing a very good job."

"He's a very liberal person, and he's a man that doesn't believe in stopping crime," he argued, adding that the pope is "a man that doesn't think that we should be toying with a country that wants a nuclear weapon so they can blow up the world."

Trump lambasted the pontiff after three American cardinals known for their close ties to Leo were interviewed on CBS's "60 Minutes" show, who criticized the Trump administration over some policies, including the Iran war.

The president also shared an AI-generated photo on Truth Social depicting himself as Jesus Christ.