'Reckoning' as Catholic voters 'twist the knife' in Trump’s new holy war against Pope Leo

President Donald Trump's escalating spat with Pope Leo XIV risks alienating Catholic voters without delivering any meaningful political gains for Republicans of faith. At the same time, the Pope's progressive stances on climate, inequality and immigrants are already dividing the faithful along partisan lines. Reporting on Monday, Puck News explained that while the rhetoric might fire up Trump's evangelical base, it could further erode GOP support, particularly among working-class and suburban Catholics in key swing districts. That will ultimately make downballot prospects more of a challenge at a time when they don't need any more problems. "Democrats are happy to help twist the knife," said Puck on X about the report. The feud began after Trump announced he was willing to commit genocide in Iran. Pope Leo began pushing peace, as many popes have before him. Trump took it as a personal slight, and the digital war of words was on. Trump even called the Pope "weak on crime."Vice President JD Vance, a convert to Catholicism, blamed the media, saying they were the ones who made up the feud between the two leaders. Then Trump posted an AI image of himself as Jesus Christ. GOP political strategists are scrambling. “Is there a big coalition that’s been itching for a fight with the Vatican?” asked one Democratic consultant who worked in races in Pennsylvania in the past. “I don’t think that’s the case.”Meanwhile, a GOP pollster told Puck, "Polling on religion is rare, but... it’s now time to start looking." Democrats are gearing up: "It is not hard to target likely voters who are... Catholic with ads online," said one Illinois strategist.Last week, Trump escalated the battle, slashing funding for a Catholic organization, including canceling an $11 million long-standing contract with Miami Catholic Charities, which helps unaccompanied minors and migrant children. Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski wrote an op-ed for The Miami Herald saying, "For more than 60 years, the Archdiocese of Miami’s services for unaccompanied minors have been recognized for their excellence and have served as a model for other agencies throughout the country."Without the funding, the group won't last the rest of 2026. The escalation hits Latino Catholics and white working-class Reagan Democrats the hardest. GOP strategist Mike Madrid, who has spent decades studying Latino voters, told Puck, "Everything [Trump's] doing violates the sensibility of these voters... There’s going to be a reckoning." It's been a little over a year since Hispanic Catholics fled from the Democratic Party, but watching Trump target all Latinos, even citizens, has eroded the relationship. The Democratic consultant from Illinois noted that problems are already popping up in races. "It’s really bad for Republicans in Catholic areas like the upper Midwest, Long Island, [and] the border," said the strategist. Pope Leo, the first American Pope, grew up in Chicago's working-class South Side. In many ways, he represents the voters that Democrats lost to MAGA in 2024. Even Trump diehards can't do anything but shrug.One former GOP officeholder from a red state said that their neighbors are opposed to Trump's feud with the Pope. "Nobody likes what he said... but they’re used to him attacking everybody," the Republican said.The coalition built for 2024 didn't have huge swaths of a population supporting Trump; it was small pieces of traditionally Democratic groups. Losing those is becoming a huge problem for the GOP because they aren't pivoting to Democrats, they're simply dropping out of politics altogether, a new study cited by Jacobin said.