Two Americans living on different planets

When Robert Prevost was elected Pope Leo XIV as the first American pope in history, people wondered how he would get on with President Donald Trump. ‘Not great’ was the general prognosis. Though both were American-born, they lived on different planets. Chalk and cheese.

Pope Francis couldn’t deal with Americans. His focus on the care of the poor was out of sync with the standard American gospel that the rich were blessed by God and poverty was the fault of the poor. And yet millions of American Catholics had voted for Trump. Francis seemed almost to despair of America.

But while Francis effectively withdrew from Trump’s America, Leo is built of ‘sterner stuff’. When Trump discovered that Leo’s brother was a MAGA (Make America Great Again) supporter, he imagined it was a good sign that he would have a free run at further domesticating American Catholicism.

However, an effort early in 2025 by the vice-president, JD Vance, a recent convert to Catholicism, to prioritise love of family over respect for migrants, drew a swift rebuke from the future Pope Leo. Catholic social teaching, he pointed out, was being oversimplified and misapplied by Vance and couldn’t be used to justify harsh immigration policies.

After becoming pope, in May 2025, and a short period of testing the relative waters between the Pentagon and the Vatican, Trump and Leo were seen to be at odds with one another.

In January, Cardinal Christophe Pierre, the Catholic Church’s representative in America (Papal Nuncio), was summoned to the Department of War where Pete Hegseth’s officials pointed out a few home truths including that ‘the United States has the military power to do whatever it wants’ and that ‘the Catholic Church should take its side’. The meeting was described by Massimo Faggioli, a Catholic theologian at Trinity College Dublin, as ‘like inviting a vegetarian to a barbecue’.

While both sides used diplomatic language to calm the situation - an exchange of views of mutual interest, a substantive, respectful and professional meeting, frank but very cordial - it is clear that it was a difficult conversation or as one Vatican official described the meeting as between two alternate approaches, one dominated by ‘force, deterrence and security’, the other by ‘listening, dialogue and persistence’.

However, a comment of a consultor to the Vatican communications department, the Jesuit Fr James Martin, may be closer to the full truth when he said that he had ‘no doubt’ but that government officials ‘could have spoken bluntly, even rudely to Cardinal Pierre’.

An invitation to Pope Leo to attend the 250th birthday celebrations of July 4th marking the founding of the USA was turned down as Leo decided instead, very pointedly, to visit the island of Lampedusa in Italy, where Pope Francis had honoured migrants who died crossing the Mediterranean and where Francis had first drawn attention to what he called ‘the globalisation of indifference’.

Meanwhile Trump continued his mesmeric odyssey: ogling Greenland; insulting Canada; invading Venezuela; menacing illegal migrants; threatening Cuba; abusing President Zelensky of Ukraine in the Oval Office; building a monster dance hall; visiting his friend, President Putin of Russia; attacking those on his enemy list; attending a dizzying number of court trials while rubbishing their verdicts; organising a prayer breakfast of multidenominational mainly Protestant evangelical clergy, including the hapless Catholic Bishop Barron – an unexpected convert to the MAGA creed – many laying hands on Trump and praying for victory and protection in war; ignoring the Epstein files; and latterly menacing Iran and threatening to target its power plants, bridges, oil infrastructure and transportation networks and to obliterate its civilisation out of existence. And now, at present, ‘cleaning up the Strait of Hormuz ‘.

Meanwhile, Leo lamented that a ‘zeal for war’ was increasing, and that principles of law governing invasion and the use of force ‘were being undermined’. If Trump had imagined that the American Leo might be an asset he was soon disabused of that perception.

The latest exchange between Leo and Trump indicates a new low in their relationship when Trump issued a late night rant on social media. It was littered with complaints and lies and followed up with another post with a representation of himself as Jesus Christ - a mockery of the Catholic faith that subsequently was quickly withdrawn. Trump described Leo as: ‘weak’, ‘wanting Iran to have a nuclear weapon’, ‘supporting an influx of murderers, drug dealers and killers into the USA’, ‘is friendly with Obama supporters’ and was only elected pope ‘to deal with Trump’ and he ended his rant by advising Leo ‘to get his act together as Pope, use Common Sense, stop catering to the Radical Left, and focus on being a Great Pope, not a Politician’. I counted eight obvious lies in just over 700 words.

In contrast Leo’s was a measured, adult response: he wasn’t a politician so he didn’t ‘want to enter into a debate with him.’ He continued: ‘I continue to speak strongly against war, seeking to promote peace, dialogue, and multilateralism among states to find solutions to problems. Too many people are suffering today, too many innocent lives have been lost, and I believe someone must stand up and say there is a better way. I say this to all world leaders: let us end wars and promote peace and reconciliation. I have no fear of the Trump administration or speaking out loudly of the message of the Gospel, which is what I believe I am here to do, what the Church is here to do... I believe in the message of the Gospel, as a peacemaker.’ The contrast between the two responses couldn’t have been more different.

Trump in his usual form – personal abuse peppered with complaint, an infantile perspective coupled with an insatiable ego and with an extraordinary inability to distinguish truth from lies, right from wrong, or even to recognise what shame might look like.

And Leo, the adult in the room, taking responsibility, defining a moral response, explaining a religious motivation, respectful, courageous, committed, measured and reasoned.

As I said at the start, both were American-born, living on different planets. Chalk and cheese.