JD Vance Downplays Donald Trump’s Pope Attack as ‘Joke’ as Feud With Pope Leo XIV Grows

Vice President JD Vance faced questions during a recent appearance when he was asked about President Donald Trump’s attack on Pope Leo XIV. Trump dominated online discourse when he criticized the head of the Catholic Church in a long social media rant, branding him “weak” and “terrible for foreign policy.” He went on to credit himself for Leo’s elevation to the papacy before sharing an AI-generated image depicting himself as Jesus.

According to The Daily Beast, Vance appeared on Fox News’ Special Report with Bret Baier, where he was asked about his views “as a Catholic” on Trump’s feud with Pope Leo. In response to this, Vance said the issue was not "newsworthy" further saying that the president was “posting a joke” when he posted the since-deleted image of himself as Jesus.

He went on to heap praise on Trump for not being “filtered,” further adding that “it’s totally reasonable” that the President has “disagreements” with Pope Leo.

For context, the attack came after Leo criticized Trump and his allies for their immigration policy and ongoing wars. “I certainly think that in some cases it would be best for the Vatican to stick to matters of morality, to stick to matters of, you know, what’s going on in the Catholic Church, and let the president of the United States stick to dictating American public policy,” said Vance, who has often talked about his midlife conversion to Catholicism.

The Vice President went on to downplay the escalating rift between his boss and the spiritual leader of more than a billion Catholics like him.

He asserted that he doesn’t worry about the conflict between them. He added, “I think it’s a natural thing. I’m sure it will happen in the future, and it’s not that big of a thing that it happened in the past.” Despite the ongoing war of words, Vance claimed, “We can respect the pope, we certainly have a good relationship with the Vatican.”

Meanwhile, according to The Free Press last week, a top Pentagon official summoned the top Vatican diplomat, Cardinal Christophe Pierre, for a meeting in January to tell him the United States has the military power to do “whatever it wants” and that Leo “better take its side.”

In addition, the report noted that on Easter Sunday, Leo XIV requested that world leaders lay down their weapons and choose peace, and drop the “desire to dominate others.”

The remarks came following weeks of his criticism of the Iran war, which intensified during Holy Week when he openly condemned it, saying, “the imperialist occupation of the world” and warned that God rejects the prayers “of those who wage war.” Amid the backlash, Trump criticized the pope and posted a lengthy message on his Truth Social account.

Part of the post read, “I don’t want a Pope who thinks it’s OK for Iran to have a Nuclear Weapon. I don’t want a Pope who thinks it’s terrible that America attacked Venezuela, a country that was sending massive amounts of Drugs into the United States and, even worse, emptying their prisons, including murderers, drug dealers, and killers, into our Country.”