Fact check: Did the Pope endorse Iran’s nuclear ambitions? Decoding Trump’s latest Vatican attack
&imwidth=600&imheight=450&format=webp&quality=medium "Fact check: Did the Pope endorse Iran’s nuclear ambitions? Decoding Trump’s latest Vatican attack")
US President Donald Trump, Pope Leo XIV Photograph: (Combination created using images from AFP)
Is the feud between Donald Trump and Pope Leo XIV getting out of hand? Trump has accused the pontiff of being “fine” with Iran’s actions, sparking fresh controversy. What exactly did he say and how accurate is it?
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US President Donald Trump on Monday (Apr 20) once again escalated his feud with Pope Leo XIV, accusing the American-born pontiff of effectively endorsing Iran's nuclear ambitions and turning a blind eye to the regime's killing of protesters. Speaking during an interview with the NY Post, the POTUS slammed Pope, accusing him of being "fine" with Iran killing 42,000 unarmed protestors. This comes as Trump and the Pope continue to be engaged in a feud following the pontiff's denunciation of the Iran war.
Also read | 'Fake Jesus!': Iran turns Trump's deleted AI-image into a viral LEGO diss track amid Pope row | In pics
Trump's two questions for the Pope
Accusing the pope of taking an unacceptable stance on Iran's nuclear programme. "Why does the pope think it is fine for Iran to have a nuclear weapon and to kill 42,000 unarmed protesters?" Trump said in an early morning interview with the New York Post, framing his questions as a direct challenge to the pope's moral authority on the conflict.
Calling the Iran war "one of the most important wars," he claimed to have told the Pope that "you can't allow them to have a nuclear weapon because they will use it and millions of people will be dead, including Italians and Catholics around the world."
"And you can’t allow a country to kill 42,000 unarmed protesters, many of which were young people, who they hanged from a crane in a public square."
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Also read | THIS GOP lawmaker thinks POTUS is ‘almost second coming’ of Jesus even as Trump vs Pope feud escalates
Is Pope in favour of Iran having nuclear weapons?
No, the pope never said Iran should have a nuclear weapon, a point fact-checkers flagged when Trump made a similar mischaracterisation last week. But the president has shown no interest in walking back the framing, using it instead as the centrepiece of his case that Leo is naive about the realities of the conflict.
The latest feud between them started earlier this month, when US President Donald Trump posted an AI-generated image of himself on Truth Social depicting him in a Jesus-like pose, with glowing hands, healing imagery, the works. The backlash was immediate, across political lines. Even some MAGA supporters pushed back. Trump deleted the post. His explanation, offered afterwards, was that the image showed him as a "doctor," not a religious figure. He declined to apologise to the Pope. Within hours, the internet had a new obsession (and Iran) had new meme material. The pope called for an end to "the madness of war," denounced "arrogant" leaders who wage armed conflict, and said at a Palm Sunday mass on March 29 that God "does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them."
However, the two men have been on a collision course for a long time before the Iran war. Before this, Leo had refused to join Trump's proposed Ukraine "Board of Peace," and had repeatedly criticised the administration's mass deportation policies and foreign policy posture.
Disclaimer: WION takes utmost care to accurately and responsibly report ongoing conflicts in West Asia involving Israel, Iran, US, Gulf nations and non-state actors like Hezbollah, Hamas, Houthis, Islamic State, and others. Claims and counterclaims, disinformation and misinformation are being made online and offline. Given this context, WION cannot independently verify the authenticity of all statements, social media posts, photos and videos.
