Much has been made about the recent social media post made by President Donald Trump criticizing Pope Leo XIV as being “WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy.” In typical Trump-responsive fashion, many expressed outrage at the gall of the president to criticize the leader of the Catholic Church. Political charlatans rebuked Trump, accusing him of many false things that accompany hyperbolic and senseless condemnations predicated on emotional outbursts and not facts or reality. Because while many immediately rushed to vilify Trump, we must acknowledge the facts: The pope attacked Trump first, not the other way around.

An honest assessment of the feud, free of pearl-clutching hysteria or performative outrage, requires an objective review of the pope’s rhetoric. To understand the tension between the Vatican and the White House, one must go back several months, to at least October, when Leo attacked Trump over illegal immigration enforcement operations in the United States.