The pope has escalated his feud with President Donald Trump, specifically his immigration policies that involve enforcing the nation’s border and immigration laws, amid what analysts are calling a campaign for votes.
The Washington Examiner said Pope Leo XIV, on a trip to Africa, complained that the world is being “ravaged by tyrants.”
The report noted this was “after engaging this week in a feud with President Donald Trump over the war in Iran.”
“The world is being ravaged by a handful of tyrants, yet it is held together by a multitude of supportive brothers and sisters,” the pope said.
He’s now touring four nations in Africa, and urged officials in Cameroon, where a civil war has killed 65,000 recently, to break “the chains of corruption.”
He also lashed out at those who “manipulate religion and the very name of God for their own military, economic and political gain, dragging that which is sacred into darkness and filth.”
The report noted U.S. “War Secretary Pete Hegseth previously called for Americans to pray for victory in Iran ‘in the name of Jesus Christ,’ and frequently references his Christian faith, praying for God to strike down the nation’s enemies.”
The pope has “insinuated,” the report said, “the United States [in Iran] is a perpetrator of the ‘demonic cycle of evil,’ and adding that God does not bless any war or nations that ‘drop bombs.’”
Trump has responded on social media that the pope is “terrible for foreign policy.”
He further responded by withdrawing millions of dollars in federal funding from a Catholic Charities’ effort to provide benefits to immigrant children.
It was the Department of Health and Human Services that canceled a contract of about $11 million with the Miami archdiocese division of Catholic Charities.
Federal officials revealed it is part of a plan to close and consolidate “unused facilities” even “as the Trump Administration continues efforts to stop illegal entry and the smuggling and trafficking of unaccompanied alien children.”
The Miami operation reportedly had about 1,900 immigrant children in its supervision, down from 22,000 during Joe Biden’s tenure.
Trump also has suggested to others to remind the pope about the thousands of innocent protesters executed by the Iranian regime.
Analysts pointed out the war of words marks “a new low for the Vatican’s relationship with the United States.”
This comes with a pope who hails from Chicago.
“I don’t want a pope who thinks it’s OK for Iran to have a nuclear weapon,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
He accused the pope of “catering to the Radical Left.”
Don’t be fooled by the Vatican’s moral outcry. It isn’t about peace – It’s about VOTES
American Pope Leo XIV from Chicago, has been positioned as the ultimate Frontline Man. He isn’t trying to save souls in Tehran -he’s trying to save seats in DC The TRUMP-CARD sees the play. pic.twitter.com/FW1bub6JvZ
— April Color (@ColorApril) April 15, 2026
Analysts, including Hal Lambert, a financial expert and longtime Republican activist, have pointed out that one of Barack Obama’s top lieutenants recently visited the pope, and now there are all sorts of criticisms about Trump, including those from various levels of the Catholic church hierarchy.
The accusation is that Democrats are trying to weaponize the pope, and the church, against Republicans as the midterm elections approach in November. They claim, “It’s about votes.”
