<div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>When he was elected, US President </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/donald-trump" rel="" target="" title="Trump "><span>Trump</span></a><span> gushed about him being "the first American pope".</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Now it appears that warmth has faded as Chicago-born </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/pope" rel="" target="" title="Pope "><span>Pope</span></a><span> Leo XIV, who was elected last May, continued his criticism of the US President's war in the Middle East.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The American president launched an extraordinary spray on the pontiff after the Pope blasted Trump's </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/iran" rel="" target="" title="Iran "><span>Iran</span></a><span> vow that "</span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/world/us-israel-iran-war-donald-trump-warns-a-whole-civilisation-will-die-tonight-if-a-deal-with-iran-isnt-reached/95357b64-282a-4c4b-8056-27b642794b65" rel="" target="" title='a whole civilisation will die tonight."'><span>a whole civilisation will die tonight."</span></a></div></div><div><div id="adspot-mobile-medium"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>LIVE UPDATES:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/world/us-israel-iran-war-live-updates-donald-trump-strait-of-hormuz-blockade-peace-talks-end/d0528cd0-11e3-4b7f-93d6-7c0501a3140f" target="_blank"><strong><span>Peace plans shattered as Trump weighs more strikes</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>FUEL CRISIS:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/victoria-news-government-app-to-name-and-shame-petrol-stations/bb4ba147-860b-41ce-86a1-eab684f89cb7" target="_blank"><strong><span>State's petrol app to name and shame servos charging highest prices</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>While the Vatican has a tradition of diplomatic neutrality, the Pope said the US </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/world/pope-leo-says-donald-trump-iran-war-remarks-unacceptable/42a49f61-3a3d-4fe6-aa74-c2be5b655a48" rel="" target="" title="President's vow was &quot;truly unacceptable&quot;,"><span>President's vow was "truly unacceptable",</span></a><span> adding any attacks on civilian infrastructure violate international law.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"Today as we all know there was this threat against all the people of Iran. This is truly unacceptable," Leo said as he left his country house in Castel Gandolfo, south of Rome.</span></div></div><div><div class="OUTBRAIN" data-reactroot="" data-src="//www.9news.com.au/world/donald-trump-pope-leo-xiv-war-weak-and-terrible-trumps-remarkable-criticism-of-pope-marks-stark-turnaround/e93825bf-07bb-4a89-90d9-3f5344cab937" data-widget-id="AR_5"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Trump has now called the Pope "weak" and "terrible" and made confusing claims related to COVID, Venezuela and Barack Obama.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>In a rant on his site, Trust Social, Trump said the pope was "weak on crime" and "terrible on social policy" before going on an incoherent rant which seemed to criticise the church over "arrests" during COVID involving social distancing.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"I like his brother Louis much better than I like him because Louis is MAGA," he said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"We don't like a pope that says it's okay to have a nuclear weapon," he later told reporters."I don't like it. I'm not a big fan of Pope Leo."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>He also said "I don't want a Pope who criticizes a president of the United States because I am doing exactly what I was elected in a LANDSLIDE to do."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Trump also brought up Venezuela, which the US attacked in January, in his remarkable post.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"I don't want a Pope who thinks it's OK for Iran to have a Nuclear Weapon.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>WORLD:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/world/world-news-hungary-election-results-viktor-orban-donald-trump-ally-loses-to-peter-magyar-in-result-that-will-rock-europe/e991f3ea-b1d5-425c-822c-76d282d534cd" target="_blank"><strong><span>Bombshell election win in Hungary will ring alarm bells in the Kremlin</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"I don't want a Pope who thinks it's terrible that America attacked Venezuela, a Country that was sending massive amounts of Drugs into the United States and, even worse, emptying their prisons, including murderers, drug dealers, and killers, into our Country," he said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>He also claimed Leo was only chosen because he was president.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"Leo should be thankful because, as everyone knows, he was a shocking surprise.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"He wasn't on any list to be Pope, and was only put there by the Church because he was an American, and they thought that would be the best way to deal with President Donald J. Trump.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"If I wasn't in the White House, Leo wouldn't be in the Vatican."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>He also claimed the Pope "meets with Obama Sympathizers like David Axelrod, a LOSER from the Left, who is one of those who wanted churchgoers and clerics to be arrested."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Axelrod was an adviser to Obama.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"We don't like a pope that says it's okay to have a nuclear weapon," Trump later told reporters.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"I don't like it. I'm not a big fan of Pope Leo."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Trump, who just days before provoked the ire of Catholics around the world by </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/world/trump-draws-criticism-with-ai-image-of-himself-as-the-pope-ahead-of-the-papal-conclave/c5531f8f-051a-47fb-808b-ad16500a4c04" rel="" target="" title="posting an AI-generated image of himself as the pope"><span>posting an AI-generated image of himself as the pope</span></a><span>, was quick to congratulate Leo last year when he was chosen to lead the Catholic Church.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"It is such an honour to realise that he is the first American Pope," Trump, who is Christian but not Catholic said, on Truth Social.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/trump-strait-of-hormuz-blockade-timeline-us-naval-strategy-failed-peace-talks-with-iran/2ccf08b9-a98b-4fec-8944-07df78cdf133" target="_blank"><strong><span>'Blown to hell': Donald Trump announces US blockade of Strait of Hormuz</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"What excitement, and what a Great Honour for our Country. I look forward to meeting Pope Leo XIV. It will be a very meaningful moment!"</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Trump attended the funeral of Pope Francis.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The American pope has also recently urged Americans and other "people of good will"to contact their political leaders and congressional representatives to demand they reject war and work for peace.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>He used his Easter appeal to plea for "peace and to reject war, especially a war which many people have said is an unjust war, which is continuing to escalate, and which is not resolving anything."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Leo has also publicly named Trump in saying he hoped the US president was truly "looking for an off-ramp."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Also last week Leo didn't cite Trump by name but in comments in English he urged people to contact their political leaders and congressional representatives "to ask them, tell them to work for peace and to reject war."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>He said the message to political leaders should be: "Come back to the table, let's talk, let's look for solutions in a peaceful way and let's remember especially the innocent children, the elderly, sick, so many people who have already become or will become victims of this continued warfare."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The Vatican is particularly concerned about how the Iran conflict has spread to a renewed war in Lebanon between Israel and the Iranian-backed Lebanese militant Hezbollah group.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The Vatican fears for Christians in southern Lebanon.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/war" target="" title="The Pentagon"><span>The Pentagon</span></a><span> has </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/world/cardinal-christophe-pierre-pope-leo-pentagon-jd-vance-usa-politics-news/216a1531-509b-4f62-b6ae-b652c24b0784" rel="" target="" title="said reports of a meeting between senior Department of Defence "><span>said reports of a meeting between senior Department of Defence</span></a><span> officials and the Vatican's representative in the US are "highly exaggerated and distorted".</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><a href="https://www.thefp.com/p/why-the-vatican-and-the-white-house" target="" title="The Free Press"><em><span>The Free Press</span></em></a><span> reports the Pentagon summoned Cardinal Christophe Pierre for a meeting with Under Secretary of War for Policy Elbridge Colby.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>At the January meeting, Pentagon officials reportedly criticised a speech made by </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/world/pope-leo-says-donald-trump-iran-war-remarks-unacceptable/42a49f61-3a3d-4fe6-aa74-c2be5b655a48" target="" title="Pope Leo XIV"><span>Pope Leo XIV</span></a><span> and told the cardinal the Vatican needed to get on board.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/tourist-drowns-at-famous-northern-territory-swimming-hole/c160d352-7b09-408d-a335-d031b6eedb5a" target="_blank"><strong><span>Young woman drowns at famous Aussie swimming hole</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><em><span>NEVER MISS A STORY:</span></em></strong><span> </span><em><span>Get your breaking news and exclusive stories first by following us across all platforms.</span></em></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><ul><li><strong><em><span>Download the 9NEWS App here via</span></em></strong><span> </span><a href="https://apps.apple.com/au/app/9news/id1010533727" target="_blank"><strong><em><span>Apple</span></em></strong></a><span> </span><strong><em><span>and</span></em></strong><span> </span><a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=nineNewsAlerts.nine.com&amp;hl=en_AU&amp;pli=1" target="_blank"><strong><em><span>Google Play</span></em></strong></a></li><li><strong><em><span>Make 9News your preferred source on Google by</span></em></strong><span> </span><a href="https://9.nine.com.au/8x987w" target="_blank"><strong><em><span>ticking this box here</span></em></strong></a></li><li><strong><em><span>Sign up to</span></em></strong><span> </span><a href="https://login.nine.com.au/edm?client_id=nineatnine" target="_blank"><strong><em><span>our breaking newsletter here</span></em></strong></a></li></ul></div></div>