By Molly Goddard
9:17am PDT, May 9, 2025
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Newly elected
Pope Leo XIV has always made his thoughts about
Donald Trump known.
On Thursday, May 8, Robert Francis Prevost, 69, from the United States, was named the leader of the Catholic Church following the passing of
Pope Francis. Despite his American roots, the Chicago native has long been a critic of the current commander-in-chief and his controversial policies.
Keep reading to hear Leo's stance on Trump…
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Pope Leo XIV made it clear he dislikes Donald Trump via his verified account @drprevost on X. In an April 14 update, the new sovereign of the Vatican City State retweeted a message slamming the Republican leader and
El Salvador's President
Nayib Bukele for their lack of action to return a wrongfully deported citizen to America.
"As Trump & Bukele use Oval to [laugh emoji] Feds' illicit deportation of a US resident… once an undoc-ed Salvadorean himself, now-DC [auxiliary bishop]
Evelio [Menjivar] asks, 'Do you not see the suffering? Is your conscience not disturbed? How can you stay quiet?'" Catholic commentator
Rocco Palmo wrote.
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In February,
Pope Leo XIV shared a link on X to an article condemning Vice President
J.D. Vance's apparent lack of compassion entitled, "J.D. Vance is wrong: Jesus doesn't ask us to rank our love for others."
In the piece by the
National Catholic Reporter, they cited Donald Trump's right-hand man's prior comments. "There is a Christian concept that you love your family and then you love your neighbor and then you love your community and then you love your fellow citizens and then after that, prioritize the rest of the world. A lot of the far left has completely inverted that," he said in an interview.
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During Donald Trump's first term in 2017, Pope Leo XIV made it clear he did not stand for how the right-winger treated people who were seeking asylum in the United States when he retweeted a message from Jesuit priest James Martin.
"We're banning all Syrian refugees? The men, women and children who *most* need help? What an immoral nation we are becoming. Jesus weeps," the post read.
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Pope Leo XIV has a more progressive stance on certain controversial issues, such as ending capital punishment and climate change. However, he seems to have remained traditional on abortion, gender and homosexuality.
"Let's defend human life at all times!" Leo penned in a 2015 social media update while sharing a photo from the March For Life rally in Peru.
In a 2012 speech to his fellow bishops in 2012, Leo
reportedly slammed the press for showing "sympathy for beliefs and practices that are at odds with the Gospel," such as the "homosexual lifestyle" and "alternative families comprised of same-s** partners and their adopted children."
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Despite their differences, Donald Trump took to Truth Social on Thursday, May 8, to send well wishes to Pope Leo XIV.
"Congratulations to Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, who was just named Pope," he wrote. "It is such an honor to realize that he is the first American Pope. What excitement and what a Great Honor for our Country. I look forward to meeting Pope Leo XIV. It will be a very meaningful moment!"
