‘Not Helpful!’ Fox News Theologian Calls Out Trump’s Attacks On Pope Leo

Theologian and Fox News contributor Jonathan Morris called out President Donald Trump’s recent attacks on Pope Leo XIV as “not healthy” and “not helpful” during an appearance on The Will Cain Show.

Recently, Trump has been dialing up the aggressiveness of his attacks on Leo, who has been an outspoken advocate against numerous wars, including Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and more recently the U.S. and Israeli strikes in Iran, as well as criticizing the Trump administration’s immigration policies.

On Sunday, Trump posted a lengthy rant on his Truth Social account lambasting the pope as “terrible” thoughts on foreign policy, “WEAK” on crime and nuclear weapons — plus taking credit for the pope, formerly known as Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, becoming the first American pope last year.

Monday morning, the president posted and then deleted a meme showing him as Jesus healing a sick man. Trump claimed he thought it was showing him as a doctor or Red Cross worker — a claim that was met with immediate skepticism, as well as widespread backlash, including from Trump’s MAGA base.

Morris, who used to be a Catholic priest before requesting a dispensation from the clerical state, has been a longtime contributor on multiple Fox News programs. On Monday, he chatted with Will Cain about the president’s feud with the pope.

Cain called the dispute a “fascinating dynamic” and asked Morris for his “initial reaction.”

Morris drew a distinction between the cardinals who had criticized Trump but “do not necessarily represent the pope” and were “very liberal cardinals.” He expressed his surprise about comments from some of the cardinals.

Trump “should just understand that popes are going to be popes and they are going to say war is almost always bad,” Morris said, adding that he was “a conservative at heart” and had “spent many weekends” with Cain and now-Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth “on the couch together on Fox & Friends.”

The pope “understands that most wars are bad,” Morris continued, recommending that Trump “just say ‘I agree with you, Afghanistan was not a very good thing, Iraq was not a good thing, and I’m only doing this because I have special knowledge that this was an imminent threat to the United States — the United States, and its allies.”

“Does that make sense?” Morris asked, and Cain replied, “yes.”

This would be better, Morris said, “instead of getting into, ‘you don’t know what you’re talking about, Pope Leo.’ That’s not healthy. That’s not helpful! It’s not helpful to Trump.”

“The Catholic church is actually booming right now in the United States,” Morris said, and Trump “would be wise” to keep his message on saying, “war is a terrible thing” and “I’m only doing this because this was an imminent threat,” and then “even these cardinals would say, if there is an imminent threat to the United States, the president has not only a right but an obligation to respond also with violence.”

“So I think President Trump would be very wise to say, ‘Hold on. I’m not going to get into a battle between me and the pope,” Morris concluded. “Let’s talk about what we want. We all want peace.’ And Pope Leo is saying war is almost always a very, very bad thing. And I would say that President Trump agrees.”

Watch the clip above via Fox News.

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