Pope Leo: I am not afraid of Trump administration

U.S.-born Pope Leo XIV pushed back Mon­day on Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump’s broad­side against him over the U.S.-Is­rael war in Iran, telling re­porters that the Vat­i­can’s ap­peals for peace and rec­on­cil­i­a­tion are root­ed in the Gospel, and that he doesn’t fear the Trump ad­min­is­tra­tion.

“To put my mes­sage on the same plane as what the pres­i­dent has at­tempt­ed to do here, I think is not un­der­stand­ing what the mes­sage of the Gospel is,” Leo told The As­so­ci­at­ed Press aboard the pa­pal plane en route to Al­ge­ria. “And I’m sor­ry to hear that but I will con­tin­ue on what I be­lieve is the mis­sion of the church in the world to­day.”

His­to­ry’s first U.S.-born pope stressed that he was not mak­ing a di­rect at­tack against Trump or any­one else with his gen­er­al ap­peal for peace and crit­i­cisms of the “delu­sion of om­nipo­tence” that is fu­el­ing the Iran war and oth­er con­flicts around the world.