‘Leave the Church Alone’: Republican Senate Leader Dings Trump for Going After Pope Leo

(AP Photo/Tom Brenner)

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) on Monday suggested that President Donald Trump should ease up on his attacks on Pope Leo XIV.

Throughout the start of his papacy, Pope Leo has offered numerous indirect criticisms of the Trump administration. Chief among his complaints were the administration’s immigration policy and the war in Iran. Pope Leo notably never called out Trump directly.

On Sunday, the president had seemingly had enough of those criticisms when he published a stunning Truth Social post going after the Pope. In the post, Trump accused Pope Leo of being “weak on crime” and claimed that the leader of the Catholic Church should not be criticizing the President of the United States.

Shortly after that post, Trump spoke to the media and declared he was “not a fan” of the first American-born Pope.

On Monday after noon, Thune was asked about the unprecedented feud between the Trump Administration and the Catholic Church. According to Punchbowl News senior congressional reporter Andrew Desiderio, Thune’s message to the president was brief:

“I would leave the church alone,” Thune says when asked about Trump attacking the pope.

Trump ratcheted up his feud with the Pope on Sunday night when he also posted an AI-generated image depicting himself as Jesus Christ. That image was met with widespread backlash, resulting in it being deleted from his Truth Social page the next day.

When asked about the Truth Social post, Thune declined to give any comment aside from pointing out the fact that it had been deleted.

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