‘Stick to matters of morality’: JD Vance tells Vatican to stay out of US politics amid Trump–Pope row
US Vice President JD Vance asked the Vatican on Monday to “stick to matters of morality” amid an escalating public clash between President Donald Trump and Pope Leo XIV over the Iran war.“I certainly think that in some cases, it would be best for the Vatican to stick to matters of morality… and let the President United States stick to dictating American public policy,” Vance said while speaking to Fox News.The vice president’s remarks came as Trump and the US-born pontiff traded increasingly sharp barbs over the Iran conflict, with the president refusing to apologise for calling Pope Leo “weak on crime” and “terrible for foreign policy.”Vance, a Catholic who recently released a book about his faith, also defended Trump’s now-deleted social media post depicting himself as a saint-like healer with light radiating from his fingers.“The President was posting a joke,” Vance said of the image, which drew widespread criticism including from some of Trump’s own evangelical supporters. “It’s a good thing” that Trump “likes to mix it up on social media” and is “not filtered.”“Of course, he took it down because he recognised a lot of people weren’t understanding his humour,” Vance added.The image, which showed Trump in biblical robes laying hands on a sick man, with eagles, American flags, and angelic figures in the sky. It was deleted Monday morning after a global backlash.
Pope hits back
Speaking to The Associated Press aboard the papal plane en route to Algeria, Pope Leo pushed back on Trump’s broadside, saying the Vatican’s appeals for peace are rooted in the Gospel.“I’m not afraid of the Trump administration or of speaking out loudly about the message of the Gospel, which is what the Church works for,” Leo said.“I will continue to speak out strongly against war, seeking to promote peace, promoting dialogue and multilateralism among states to find solutions to problems,” he added.The back-and-forth between the world’s two most influential Americans deepened as the US war in Iran stretched into its seventh week. The pope had criticized what he described as a “delusion of omnipotence” driving global conflict, while Trump threatened mass strikes against Iranian infrastructure.While it’s not unusual for popes and presidents to be at cross purposes, it’s exceedingly rare for the pope to directly criticize a US leader, and Trump’s stinging response is equally uncommon.
