President Trump’s Truth Social post against Pope Leo is unprecedented in the history of the presidency and papacy. It goes without saying that no president ever made such a shocking statement, even as popes disagreed with their wars. Once again, Trump has broken the mold. He smashed it and stomped on it.
I could write an entire series responding to each line of Trump’s post — the distortions and exaggerations. And to be fair, Trump was triggered by news of Pope Leo’s meeting at the Vatican with Democrat political strategist David Axelrod, which was then followed by a “60 Minutes” interview with the three most left-wing cardinals in the American church: Blase Cupich, Joseph Tobin and Robert McElroy.
Naturally, Trump suspected a plot against him.
Among the cardinals, McElroy is highly ideological and lacks Pope Leo’s measured temperament. He went hard after Trump’s war with Iran, declaring it immoral, using language not used by the more careful Pope Leo, who’s an Augustinian who knows Just War doctrine. “This is not a just war,” declared McElroy categorically. For weeks, McElroy has been making such statements. That’s unfortunately typical of McElroy, and precisely why many in the church urged Pope Francis not to appoint him archbishop in Washington, D.C. He’s a lightning rod. Right on cue, Trump ignited.
Nonetheless, the Trump post was filled with reckless charges, including Trump’s claim there and elsewhere that Pope Leo “thinks it’s OK for Iran to have a Nuclear Weapon.” The pope never said any such thing.
Writing on each line of the Trump Truth Social post would bring me only misery, including from the type of Trump supporters who erupt at anyone who criticizes even his most indefensible outbursts. But as someone who just published a 400-page biography of the new American pontiff, I have the knowledge to answer one particularly outrageous statement in the Truth Social post. It was Trump’s claim that if it wasn’t for him, American Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost would not be pope. “If I wasn’t in the White House,” Trump insisted, “Leo wouldn’t be in the Vatican.”
That’s ludicrous. That assertion is based on no evidence whatsoever. It’s a creation of Trump’s own mind. Here are some basic facts:
On May 7, 2025, 133 cardinal electors walked into the Sistine Chapel to pick the next pope. A vote of 89 ballots would decide the new head of the Holy See.
The cardinals came from all parts of the earth. The largest region represented was Europe, which hosted 39% of the electors. About 18% were from the Asia-Pacific region, another 18% hailed from Latin America and the Caribbean, 12% came from Sub-Saharan Africa, 10% from North America, and 3% came from the Middle East and North Africa. Ten cardinal electors came from the United States. In all, according to reports from Vatican insiders, these cardinals gave 108 votes to American Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost — quite the consensus. It was a landslide.
When these men walked into the Sistine Chapel on May 7, Year of Our Lord 2025, to meet under Michelangelo’s Last Judgment, their minds were fixed on their church, their savior, their flock. They looked to the Holy Spirit for guidance. They thought of Jesus Christ. They were not thinking of Donald Trump.
Trump doesn’t like the new pope. He made that abundantly clear. It also needs to be made clear to him that as much as his world revolves around him, the cardinals’ choice of the new pope had nothing to do with him.