Pope Leo Refuses to Answer When Asked About Trump Sending Troops to His Hometown of Chicago
Pope Leo XIV is taking a vow of silence on American politics, at least for the moment, with the pontiff declining to comment on Tuesday when asked about President Donald Trump sending hundreds of National Guard troops to his hometown of Chicago, Illinois.
A female reporter asked, “Holy father, President Trump has sent 400 National Guard troops to your city, Chicago, against—”
The pope jumped in before she could finish her question, saying:
Yes, I prefer not to comment at this time about choices made — political choices — within the United States. Thank you very much.
You can see that moment below, which was captured by Vatican News and shared on X:
The pope — who was born Robert Francis Prevost in Chicago in 1955 — declined to answer a day after President Trump sent 200 National Guard troops from Texas to Chicago. President Trump has said he wants to crack down on crime in The Windy City because he was disgusted by news reports about how many people were shot over Labor Day Weekend.
“When I watch television last night, and I’m watching the news and I see that nine people were killed in Chicago and 54 were badly wounded with bullets, I say, ‘That’s not our country. We have to do something,’” Trump said in early September.
ABC 7 in Chicago reported 58 people were shot in the city over the holiday weekend, which was an 87% surge from the same time the year before.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson (D) and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (D) have strongly opposed the president, with Pritzker saying the president has been “inciting” violence by deploying troops, ICE agents, and Border Patrol agents to Chicago.
Both Johnson and Pritzker sued Trump on Monday to stop him from deploying National Guard members.
Pope Leo declined to comment a week after he weighed in on two other hot-button issues — abortion and capital punishment.
“Someone who says ‘I’m against abortion but says I am in favor of the death penalty’ is not really pro-life,” Leo told reporters on Oct. 1. “Someone who says that ‘I’m against abortion, but I’m in agreement with the inhuman treatment of immigrants in the United States,’ I don’t know if that’s pro-life.”
