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Pope Leo XIV has become the latest source of outrage for US president Donald Trump and his fellow Republicans, with Fox News host Sean Hannity joining the 79-year-old convicted felon in attacking the pontiff.
On Sunday, the Potus took to his Truth Social platform to fume that Pope Leo is “WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy”.
He continued: “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, a Country that was sending massive amounts of Drugs into the United States and, even worse, emptying their prisons, including murderers, drug dealers, and killers, into our Country. And I don’t want a Pope who criticizes the President of the United States because I’m doing exactly what I was elected, IN A LANDSLIDE, to do, setting Record Low Numbers in Crime, and creating the Greatest Stock Market in History.
“Leo should be thankful because, as everyone knows, he was a shocking surprise. 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.
“Unfortunately, Leo’s Weak on Crime, Weak on Nuclear Weapons, does not sit well with me … 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.
“It’s hurting him very badly and, more importantly, it’s hurting the Catholic Church!”
It follows Pope Leo tweeting on Friday that God “does not bless any conflict”, adding that “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”.
“Military action will not create space for freedom or times of #Peace, which comes only from the patient promotion of coexistence and dialogue among peoples,” he wrote.
And just last month, Pope Leo said God “does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them”.
Now, though, others have joined Trump in criticising the Catholic – specifically, Fox News host Sean Hannity.
Speaking on The Sean Hannity Show on Friday, in conversation with producer Lynda McLaughlin, the broadcaster said: “He doesn’t want any conflict anywhere, and he was talking about violence. And I’m like, have you even read the Bible?
“Have you read the conflicts, the wars that were… that the Israeli people, they were empowered by God to defeat their enemies? Did you ever hear the story about David slaying Goliath, through the power of God with a slingshot, against this massive giant, or the conflicts and the wars of King Saul and so on and so forth.”
Unsurprisingly, Hannity’s remarks have since been ridiculed and criticised on social media:
“Starting to think the neocons are literally just trolling us at this point,” one X/Twitter user wrote:
Another tweeted sarcastically: “Ah yes Jesus and his notoriously pro-war messaging”:
And a third commented that it was “crazy” that “people are mad” at the Pope for saying “unjust war is wrong”:
Hannity has been approached by indy100 for comment.
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