EWTN News reports that Donald Trump publicly attacked Pope Leo XIV on social media Sunday evening, calling the pontiff “weak on crime, and terrible for foreign policy” in a lengthy post reacting to the Holy Father’s recent appeals for peace and an end to war. Trump told reporters at Joint Base Andrews: “I don’t think he’s doing a very good job. … I am not a fan of Pope Leo. He’s a very liberal person.” The president accused Leo of being soft on Iran, opposed the pope’s stance on Venezuela, and even claimed credit for Leo’s election, writing: “He wasn’t on any list to be pope, and was only put there by the Church because he was an American. If I wasn’t in the White House, Leo wouldn’t be in the Vatican.” Archbishop Paul S. Coakley of Oklahoma City, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, responded that he was “disheartened” by Trump’s attack, defending the pontiff as “the vicar of Christ who speaks from the truth of the Gospel and for the care of souls.” The public clash comes after weeks of growing friction between the White House and Catholic leaders since the United States and Israel launched military operations against Iran on Feb. 28. This spectacle of a secular ruler openly disparaging a man he calls “pope,” while the conciliar structures scramble to defend their usurper, exposes the complete inversion of the divine order — the very disorder condemned by Pius XI in *Quas Primas*.
The Inversion of Christ’s Kingdom: Caesar Judges the “Vicar”
The entire episode is a grotesque manifestation of the modernist revolution’s fruit: the reduction of the papacy to a political actor subject to the judgment of secular powers. When Donald Trump declares “I am not a fan of Pope Leo” and calls him “a very liberal person,” he treats the putative Vicar of Christ as though he were a rival politician — a senator whose voting record displeases him. That the conciliar “archbishop” Coakley must respond by saying “Pope Leo is not his rival; nor is the pope a politician” only confirms that the conciliar sect itself has accepted this politicized framework. The true Church of Christ has never been a “rival” to any temporal power; she is a perfect society, entirely free, endowed with proper and perpetual rights by her Divine Founder — not by the White House, not by electoral colleges, and not by the consensus of Cardinals who are themselves creatures of the post-conciliar revolution.
Pius XI proclaimed in *Quas Primas*: “His reign, namely, extends not only to Catholic nations or to those who, by receiving baptism according to law, belong to the Church, even though their erroneous opinions have led them astray or discord has separated them from love, but His reign encompasses also all non-Christians, so that most truly the entire human race is subject to the authority of Jesus Christ.” Yet here we see the precise opposite: a temporal ruler subjecting the one he calls “pope” to his personal approval rating, treating the papacy as an American political appointment — “If I wasn’t in the White House, Leo wouldn’t be in the Vatican.” Whether or not Trump’s claim about influencing the conclave has any basis in fact, the brazenness of the assertion reveals a world in which even the enemies of the Church treat the Vatican as a political instrument. This is the inevitable consequence of the conciliar abandonment of the social reign of Christ the King.
The Heresy of the “Care of Souls” Without the Supernatural
Archbishop Coakley’s defense of Leo is itself theologically vacuous — a perfect specimen of modernist clerical discourse. He says Leo “speaks from the truth of the Gospel and for the care of souls.” But what does this mean in the context of the conciliar sect? The “care of souls” in Catholic theology means leading souls to eternal salvation through the sacraments, sound doctrine, and the avoidance of mortal sin. The conciliar structures have systematically destroyed all three. The Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass has been replaced by a Protestantized “assembly table.” The sacrament of confession has been gutted by the abolition of the old rite and the spread of universal absolution. Sound doctrine has been replaced by the evolution of dogmas condemned in *Lamentabili sane exitu* and *Pascendi Dominici gregis*.
When Coakley says Leo speaks “from the truth of the Gospel,” one must ask: which Gospel? The conciliar sect’s gospel is the “spirit of Vatican II” — the very Modernism that St. Pius X identified as “the synthesis of all errors.” The propositions condemned in *Lamentabili* include: “Revelation was merely man’s self-awareness of his relationship to God” (Proposition 20); “The dogmas which the Church proposes as revealed are not truths of divine origin but are a certain interpretation of religious facts, which the human mind has worked out with great effort” (Proposition 22); “The Church is incapable of effectively defending evangelical ethics, because it steadfastly adheres to its views, which cannot be reconciled with modern progress” (Proposition 63). These are not ancient heresies — they are the operating system of the very structures Coakley defends.
Trump’s Blasphemy and the Image of the Beast
The article notes that “Trump also posted an image that commentators said depicted him as Jesus Christ, wearing a biblical-style robe and laying hands on a bedridden man as light emanates from his fingers, while admirers look on and eagles and military jets fill the sky above an American flag.” Whether or not Trump personally commissioned this image, its circulation in connection with his attack on Leo is a chilling sign of the times. The cult of man — condemned in the *Syllabus of Errors* as pantheism and rationalism (Propositions 1–7) — reaches its apotheosis when a political leader presents himself as a christic figure, laying hands on the sick while military jets fill the sky. This is not merely bad taste; it is the spirit of the Antichrist made visible.
Pius IX condemned the proposition that “the Roman Pontiff can, and ought to, reconcile himself, and come to terms with progress, liberalism and modern civilization” (*Syllabus*, Proposition 80). The entire post-conciliar project has been precisely this reconciliation — the Church subordinated to the “progress” of secular liberalism, measured by the standards of modern civilization rather than the immutable law of God. Trump’s attack on Leo is not an assault on the Catholic Church; it is one secular power center criticizing another for not being sufficiently aligned with its geopolitical agenda. The fact that Leo’s “appeals for peace” are treated as a political position to be evaluated — rather than the moral teaching of the Church on the sinfulness of unjust war — proves that even the enemies of the Church no longer recognize her supernatural authority.
The “Just War” Debate as Modernist Distraction
The article mentions that “Cardinal Robert McElroy argued that the current war fails to meet the strict criteria of just war theory, particularly in light of civilian suffering and the risk of disproportionate harm.” This appeal to “just war theory” by a conciliar “cardinal” is itself a modernist distortion. The Catholic doctrine of just war, as taught by St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, requires a legitimate sovereign authority, a just cause, and right intention. But the conciliar sect has no legitimate authority — it is a paramasonic structure that has abandoned the true faith. Its “cardinals” are not cardinals of the Catholic Church but officers of a counterfeit organization. Their appeals to “just war theory” are no more authoritative than those of any secular ethics department.
Moreover, the conciliar sect’s obsession with applying just war criteria to every conflict while remaining silent on the far greater evil — the apostasy within its own structures — is a textbook example of the inversion condemned by St. Pius X. The greatest war being waged today is not in Iran or Venezuela; it is the war against the Catholic faith waged by the modernist hierarchy that has occupied the Vatican since 1958. As the analysis of the Fatima apparitions in the provided documents demonstrates, the focus on external threats (communism, war) while ignoring “the main danger: modernist apostasy within the Church since the beginning of the 20th century” is itself a diversionary tactic — one that serves the enemies of the Church.
The “Election” of Leo and the Illegitimacy of the Conciliar Lineage
Trump’s claim that Leo “wasn’t on any list to be pope, and was only put there by the Church because he was an American” touches on a deeper truth that even Trump probably does not grasp. The entire line of usurpers from John XXIII onward is illegitimate — not because of any particular electoral irregularity, but because the men elected were manifest heretics who, by that very fact, could not validly hold the office of Supreme Pontiff. As St. Robert Bellarmine teaches in *De Romano Pontifice*: “A Pope who is a manifest heretic, by that very fact ceases to be Pope and head, just as he ceases to be a Christian and member of the body of the Church.” The conciliar “popes” have taught heresy — religious liberty, ecumenism, the evolution of dogmas, the dignity of non-Christian religions — all propositions condemned in the *Syllabus of Errors*, *Lamentabili*, and *Pascendi*.
Canon 188.4 of the 1917 Code of Canon Law confirms that “every office becomes vacant by the mere fact and without any declaration by reason of tacit resignation, recognized by the law itself, if the cleric: … 4. Publicly defects from the Catholic faith.” The post-conciliar “popes” have publicly defected from the Catholic faith. They are not popes. Leo XIV is not the Vicar of Christ. He is a manifest heretic occupying the Vatican — an institution that, as Pius IX warned, has become the instrument of “the synagogue of Satan, which gathers its troops against the Church of Christ” (*Syllabus*, concluding allocution).
The Duty of Catholics: Reject the Abomination
The spectacle of Trump attacking Leo, and of “Archbishop” Coakley defending him, is a reminder that the abomination of desolation spoken of by Our Lord (Matt. 24:15) is standing in the holy place. The duty of every Catholic who wishes to remain faithful to the unchanging deposit of faith is clear: reject the conciliar sect entirely. As Pope Paul IV declared in *Cum ex Apostolatus Officio*: “if at any time it shall appear that any Bishop… or even the Roman Pontiff, prior to his promotion or his assumption to the cardinalate or the papacy, has defected from the Catholic Faith or fallen into some heresy: (i) his promotion or elevation, even if it shall have been uncontested and by the unanimous assent of all the Cardinals, shall be null, void, and of no effect.”
The true Church endures — in the faithful who profess the integral Catholic faith, in the valid sacraments administered by priests ordained before the conciliar corruption, and in the immutable doctrine of the pre-conciliar Magisterium. Pius XI’s words in *Quas Primas* remain the program of every true Catholic: “Christ must reign in the mind of man, whose duty it is to accept revealed truths with complete submission to the divine will and to believe firmly and constantly in the teaching of Christ; let Christ reign in the will, which should obey God’s laws and commandments; let Him reign in the heart, which, having despised desires, must love God above all and belong only to Him.”
No secular ruler’s opinion, no conciliar “pope’s” appeals for peace, and no “bishop’s” defensive statements can alter this truth. Regnet Christus Rex — Christ the King must reign, and He will reign, not through the structures of the abomination, but in spite of them.
Source:
Trump blasts Pope Leo as 'weak' and 'terrible for foreign policy' (ewtnnews.com)
Date: 13.04.2026