Trump’s Midterm Divine Comedy

The president’s unholy spat with Pope Leo risks undoing Republican gains with working-class Catholics, just as the midterms approach. And Democrats are happy to help twist the knife.

Of course, it was probably only a matter of time until the president clashed with the newish pontiff. Trump feuded repeatedly, and often one-sidedly, with the late Pope Francis over human rights and mass deportations. Photo: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images

Abby Livingston

April 20, 2026

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About a week after Donald Trump launched an extraordinary feud with the first U.S.-born pope—declaring Leo XIV “weak on crime” before posting an A.I.-generated image of himself as Jesus Christ—the administration’s highest-ranking Catholic attempted to deescalate. This weekend, Vice President J.D. Vance said he was grateful to the pontiff for stating, in essence, that the conflict between the White House and the Vatican was overblown. “It was looked at as if I was trying to debate, again, the president” by delivering a message of peace, said the pope, “which is not in my interest at all.”