Trump Refuses to Apologize For Scathing Pope Leo Criticism: ‘He’s Wrong!’

President Donald Trump said he is not walking back one bit of his criticism of Pope Leo XIV on Monday, one day after the president posted a blistering rant about the pontiff being “WEAK” on crime and the issue of a nuclear Iran.

Trump was asked if he wanted to apologize to the pope while speaking to reporters in front of the White House. The president flatly said “no,” before ripping the pope for being “wrong” on Iran.

“You cannot have a nuclear Iran. Pope Leo would not be happy with the end result,” Trump said. “You’d have hundreds of millions of people dead. And it’s not going to happen.”

He added a moment later, “There’s nothing to apologize for. He’s wrong!”

The president said his Truth Social post about the pope was warranted because he was merely responding to Leo’s recent criticism of the Iran war. Trump reiterated his belief that the pope was “weak” on crime and said he liked the American-born pope’s brother, Louis Prevost, much more because he was a “big MAGA person.”

His answer came after he went off on the pope on Sunday night on a variety of topics spanning from crime to COVID-19. The president said Pope Leo had “terrible” thoughts on foreign policy and would be better off using “Common Sense,” rather than “catering to the Radical Left.”

Trump’s post followed Pope Leo ramping up his criticism of the Iran war last week.

The pope condemned Trump’s threat to wipe out a “whole civilization” in Iran if its theocratic leaders did not make a deal, calling it “truly unacceptable.” He then spoke out against the war three days later, saying “God does not bless any conflict.

Shortly after his post on Sunday night, Trump doubled down on his anti-Leo comments while speaking to reporters in front of Air Force One.

“We don’t like a pope that’s going to say it’s okay [for Iran] to have a nuclear weapon,” Trump said.

He added, “I am not a big fan of Pope Leo. He’s a very liberal person, and he’s a man that doesn’t believe in stopping crime.”

The pope responded on Monday morning by saying he was unfazed by Trump’s criticism.

“I have no fear of the Trump administration, nor speaking out loudly about the message of the Gospel,” the pontiff said. “That’s what I believe in. I am called to do what the church is called to do.”

Watch Trump triple down on his comments above via Fox News.

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