{"id":207952,"date":"2026-04-17T07:17:28","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T07:17:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/im-not-fighting-with-him-trump-says-he-and-pope-disagree-and-thats-ok-usa-today\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T07:17:28","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T07:17:28","slug":"im-not-fighting-with-him-trump-says-he-and-pope-disagree-and-thats-ok-usa-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/im-not-fighting-with-him-trump-says-he-and-pope-disagree-and-thats-ok-usa-today\/","title":{"rendered":"'I'm not fighting with him.' Trump says he and pope disagree, and that's OK – USA Today"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u2013 President Donald Trump<\/a> ratcheted down his weeklong feud with Pope Leo XIV<\/a>, saying it’s OK for the two of them to have different approaches to the world’s problems.
\u201cI\u2019m not fighting with him,\u201d Trump said. \u201cThe pope can say what he wants and I want him to say what he wants but I can disagree.\u201d
The president’s comments came after Trump and Leo have exchanged a series of critical messages in statements to the press and on social media about the war with Iran.
Leo had said in a post on April 10<\/a>\u00a0that anyone who is a disciple of Christ \u201cis never on the side of those who once wielded the sword and today drop bombs.\u201d
After\u00a0Trump threatened Iran on Easter Sunday<\/a>, April 5, Leo told reporters on April 7 that \u201cthere was this threat against the entire people of Iran, and this is truly unacceptable.\u201d
Trump blasted the pope on social media April 12.
“Pope Leo is WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy,”\u00a0Trump said.<\/a>\u00a0“I don\u2019t want a Pope who criticizes the President of the United States because I\u2019m doing exactly what I was elected, IN A LANDSLIDE, to do … If I wasn\u2019t in the White House, Leo wouldn\u2019t be in the Vatican.”
Vice President\u00a0JD Vance said<\/a> April 14 the pope should \u201cbe careful when he talks about matters of theology.\u201d
In response, Bishop James Massa, who heads the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops\u2019 doctrine committee, issued a statement saying the pope was preaching the gospel.
\u201cWhen Pope Leo XIV speaks as supreme pastor of the universal Church, he is not merely offering opinions on theology, he is preaching the Gospel and exercising his ministry as the Vicar of Christ,\u201d the statement said<\/a>.
Asked about the bishops’ statement, Trump said he has the right to disagree.
\u201cI want him to preach the gospel. I\u2019m all about the gospel,\u201d Trump said. \u201cBut I also know that you cannot let a certain country which is a mean-spirited country have a nuclear weapon. If they did, they would use it and I think they would use it quickly and they would kill many millions of people.\u201d
Reporters asked Trump if he felt Leo, the first American pontiff, was being disrespectful.
\u201cI don\u2019t think about it that way,\u201d Trump said. \u201cThe Pope has to understand that Iran can\u2019t have a nuclear weapon.\u201d<\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u2013 President Donald Trump ratcheted down his weeklong feud with Pope Leo XIV, saying it’s OK for the two of them to have different approaches to the world’s problems.\u201cI\u2019m not fighting with him,\u201d Trump said. \u201cThe pope can say what he wants and I want him to say what he wants but I can […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":207953,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-207952","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207952","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207952"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207952\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/207953"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}