Pope Attacks “Tyrants” Manipulating Religion Amid Feud With Trump
Pope Leo XIV continued preaching a message of peace Thursday, telling an audience in Bamenda, Cameroon, that “the world is being ravaged by a handful of tyrants, yet it is held together by a multitude of supportive brothers and sisters.”The pope is touring Africa, and delivered his speech in a country in the midst of a civil war that has killed more than 65,000 people and displaced over 500,000. But the comments also come just days after President Trump, upset that the pope vocally opposes the war in Iran, called him “weak on crime” and “terrible for foreign policy.”Though the pontiff didn’t mention Trump by name, he condemned leaders who “manipulate religion and the very name of God for their own military, economic, and political gain, dragging that which is sacred into darkness and filth.”For those that haven't seen the video of the pope telling trump indirectly 😂 pic.twitter.com/4mP7tdsQlt— Necessary-Cliff (@theos_mafia) April 16, 2026It’s a continuation of the pope’s response to Trump on Monday, when he told reporters that “I have no fear of the Trump administration or speaking out loudly of the message of the Gospel, which is what I believe I am here to do, what the Church is here to do.”“We are not politicians. We don’t deal with foreign policy with the same perspective he might understand it, but I do believe in the message of the Gospel, as a peacemaker,” the pope said on Monday. “I don’t think that the message of the Gospel is meant to be abused in the way that some people are doing.”One would think that a man who claims he ended multiple wars wouldn’t get offended if the pope calls for peace, but Trump has not engaged in any religious introspection this week, instead inciting a backlash from his Christian supporters by posting an AI image of himself as Jesus, which he later deleted, and then reposting a picture of Jesus hugging him. He probably knows deep down that he is actually a major source of conflict in the world right now.