President Trump and Pope Leo are in a war of words right now -- when they should be allies, not enemies.
Both want peace, but the president intends to get it by winning a war against Iran, while the pope thinks the war isn't worth fighting.
"I don't want a Pope who thinks it's OK for Iran to have a Nuclear Weapon," Trump said Sunday on his Truth social-media network, in a post blasting the pontiff as "weak on crime and terrible for foreign policy."
With midterm elections just seven months away, Catholic voters suddenly find themselves in the crossfire between the Vatican and the White House.
Trump proved to be a magnet for Catholics two years ago: They accounted for more than 1 in 5 of his 2024 voters, and Trump bested Kamala Harris among Catholics by a commanding 12 points.
Even in 2020, Catholics split almost evenly between Trump and a member of their own church:
Nobody would have guessed Joe Biden was Catholic to judge from his enthusiastic support for abortion rights, yet he attends Mass faithfully, and he did win the Catholic vote in 2020 -- but only barely, 50% to Trump's 49%.
The days when descendants of Irish and Italian Catholic immigrants cast their ballots for Democrats without a second thought are long gone, and thanks to Trump, Catholics have been realigning to the GOP.
But the current spat with the pope could change that.
White Catholics have been in the forefront of the Republican realignment, but Trump made inroads with Hispanics and others, too.
And growing numbers of conservative Catholic converts have not only been a keystone in Trump's electoral coalition; they're essential to his administration as well -- one even serves as his vice president.
J.D. Vance has just had a bruising experience leading negotiations with Iran; the next test of his diplomatic abilities may be trying to reconcile Trump with Pope Leo.
The VP has a book on the way in June, "Communion: Finding My Way Back to Faith," explaining his journey to the Catholic Church.
But this background makes Vance all the more aware of what the pope and the president are probably never going to agree on, and war is at the top of that list.
"We are not politicians, we don't deal with foreign policy with the same perspective he might understand it," the pope said Monday, "but I do believe in the message of the gospel, as a peacemaker."
Leo's not unusual among modern popes in decrying war in almost any circumstance.
John Paul II was "no fan," as Trump might put it, of George W. Bush's war with Iraq.
Leo leaves no doubt at all about where he stands on the war Trump has been waging: "G od does not bless any conflict," he tweeted last week. "Anyone who is a disciple of Christ, the Prince of Peace, is never on the side of those who once wielded the sword and today drop bombs."
Plenty of Catholics, as well as Protestants, wondered if the pope could really mean what he was saying -- isn't the Bible full of stories of warriors God blesses?
For that matter, popes declared a crusade or two -- or nine -- in the Holy Land themselves back in the day.
But Leo isn't unusual among recent popes in taking a hard line against war, and the Church's teachings on "Just War" are very strict.
He's not in favor of nuclear proliferation, either -- though he's opposed to what Trump deems necessary to stop the terror-sponsoring state of Iran from obtaining the ultimate weapon.
There's no easy diplomatic solution here: The pope and President Trump will continue to differ, and neither is going to keep quiet about it.
But they can and should cooperate where the big picture's concerned, despite their disagreements:
When a pope and a president work together for peace, without compromising with evil, they can achieve what's otherwise impossible.
Ronald Reagan and John Paul II proved that when they won the Cold War without the superpower showdown that had been feared for 40 years.
It wasn't because Reagan didn't use force -- he did, on many occasions, and he built up the military as never before.
But he also used the power of moral truth, just as the pope did, to move the peoples of Eastern Europe, and ultimately those of the USSR itself, to throw off tyranny.
More than the Catholic vote in the midterm elections is at stake.
Republicans will be crushed if they lose it, to be sure -- and both religious liberty and the right to life will suffer as a result, something Leo can hardly be complacent about.
But there will also be global repercussions from the president and pope condemning one another, when their voices together can achieve so much good for a world assailed by a cacophony of evil.
(COMMENT, BELOW)
Previously:
• 04/07/26: A New Extreme in Gerrymandering
• 03/17/26: Why Are Senate Dems Making Air Travel Worse?
• 03/10/26: Cuba Should Accept Trump's 'Friendly Takeover'
• 03/03/26: Immigration Enforcement Saves Lives
• 02/24/26: How a Party Offends Its Voters
• 02/17/26: Why Are Anti-ICE Activists Building Borders?
• 02/10/26: A Japanese Lesson for Troubled Britain
• 02/03/26: The Trump Coalition Wins But the GOP Brand Doesn't
• 01/27/26: Canada Should Warm to Trump's Arctic Plans
• 01/20/26: From Rock to Tech, Talent Flees Taxes
• 01/13/26: Woman Who Weaponized Car Against I.C.E Endangered Her Life -- and Yours
• 01/06/26: Tim Walz Personifies Dems' Decline
• 12/30/25: Harvard Says Yes to Discrimination, No to Western Civ
• 12/23/25: JD Vance Gets America's Creed and Heritage Right
• 12/16/25: Trump's Inflation Trap
• 12/09/25: Biden's Immigration Debacle Is the Media's, Too
• 12/02/25: 'Iryna's Law' and the Bad Judges Who Make It Necessary
• 11/26/25: Marjorie Taylor Greene's Exit Is a Warning to Republicans
• 11/19/25: Trump Hasn't Lost Hispanics (Yet)
• 11/11/25: Trump's Tariffs on Trial
• 10/28/25: MAGA Makes Allies Great Again
• 10/21/25: How To Make the AmericaS Great Again
• 10/16/25: Columbus Day Celebrates Our Civilization
• 10/09/25: Why Sharpies Are Made in America Again
• 09/30/25: Assata Shakur and Other Parents of Political Violence
• 09/09/25: Who's Accountable for Autopen Pardons?
• 09/02/25: Gender dysphoria is a mental-illness, NOT an all-encompassing delusion
• 08/26/25: Trump's Industrial Policy Is Realism, Not Socialism
• 08/19/25: Is Gavin Newsom the Dems' Answer to Trump?
• 08/12/25: Just Say No to More Marijuana
• 08/05/25: Will the GOP Make Libs Generous Again?
• 07/30/25: Trump's Trade Lesson for Economists (and the World)
• 07/22/25: Whose Politics Canceled Stephen Colbert?
• 07/08/25: A Big Beautiful Test of GOP Principles and Discipline
• 07/01/25: Dems Need Populism, But Not Zohran's Sort
• 06/25/25: Secure Borders Win Wars Like This One
• 06/18/25: WEIRD Protesters Should Stay Home
• 06/17/25: WEIRD Protesters Should Stay Home
• 06/04/25: State that's long eluded GOP turns toward Trump
• 05/21/24: Trump's Sun Belt Hopes and Rust Belt Needs
• 05/14/24: What Trump Sees in Doug Burgum
• 05/07/24: The Vietnam Era Never Ended for Biden's Party
• 05/06/24: Nationalists of the World, Unite?
• 04/25/24: Foreign Policy Splits
• 04/16/24: How pro-lifers stand to lose everything gained in overturning Roe
• 04/02/24: PBS Misremembers William F. Buckley Jr.
• 04/02/24: Who Wants to Be House Speaker?
• 03/26/24: Trump Hunts for a VP Close to Home
• 03/19/24: Princess Kate and Democracy's Discontents
• 03/12/24: Can Biden Buy the Voters?
• 03/05/24: Veepstakes Give Trump an Edge
• 02/20/24: Do Americans Trust Either Party?
• 02/13/24: Vladimir Putin -- A Passive Aggressor
• 01/23/24: Will 'Lawfare' Take Trump Off the Ballot?
• 01/16/24: Will Africa Save America?
• 01/09/24:'The Sopranos' at 25: A new world tragedy
• 01/02/24: Trump, Biden and a Fight for the Heart
• 12/12/23: What Happened to Ron DeSantis?
• 12/12/23: Biden Looks Doomed -- But Is He?
• 12/05/23: A Test for Trump and His Rivals
• 11/21/23: When Inequality Is Fatal for Men
• 11/14/23: Nevermind, The Battle's Over
• 11/07/23: War in the Dem Party -- and at the Opera
• 10/24/23: Israel's Lesson for 2024: A Lib Crackup
• 10/17/23: Libs' Dilemma: Immigration or Israel?
• 10/10/23: Why Bidenflation Defines Bidenomics
• 10/03/23: Will Gavin Newsom Copy Trump?
• 09/26/23: Biden's a Loser -- but Dems Can't Ditch Him
• 09/19/23: Do Sex Scandals Matter?
• 09/12/23: Cornel West Spells Doom for Biden
• 09/05/23: What Trump Does for Democracy
• 08/2/23: Ramaswamy: A Trump Versus Trump?
• 08/22/23: Take 'Rich Men North of Richmond' Seriously
• 08/16/23: How America Kills Its Own
• 08/08/23: The Biden Pardon That Can Spare America
• 08/01/23: Harding, a consevative for the ages
• 07/25/23: Demography Destiny, for Us and China
• 07/18/23: The Frontrunner Who Looks Like a Loser Is Biden
• 07/11/23: Britain's Bad Example for American Conservatives
• 07/05/23: Could We Still Win a Revolutionary War?
• 06/27/23: Civilizations Clash -- in Ukraine and at Home
• 06/20/23: China Comes for the Caribbean
• 06/13/23: Fertility, Family and Bio-Socialism
• 06/06/23: From American Dream to Orwell's Nightmare
• 05/23/23: Ukraine war is an existential struggle --- for the West
• 05/23/23: Learn the Right Midterm Lessons -- or Lose in 2024
• 05/16/23: Feinstein Today Is Biden Tomorrow
• 05/09/23: Trump, DeSantis and Political Courtship
• 05/02/23: RFK Jr.'s Threat to Biden
• 04/25/23: Biden's Lost Generation
• 04/25/23: Who's In Charge of Clarence Thomas?
• 04/11/23: Beyond AI, Our Cyborg Future
• 04/04/23: 2024: 3 Leaders, 1 Way to Win
• 03/28/23: Climate Science Makes a Bad Religion
• 03/21/23: All the Conspiracy That's Fit to Print