Donald Trump has picked fights with judges, generals, and late-night hosts—but now he’s throwing punches at the pope, and Bill Maher is having a field day.
On Friday’s episode of Real Time With Bill Maher, the comedian tore into what he framed as Trump’s ever-expanding list of feuds, zeroing in on what he mocked as the president’s “full-on rap war” with Pope Leo XIV.
Maher, 70, set the stage by rattling through Trump’s recent conflicts as the Iran war drags toward its eighth week, and talk of a ceasefire remains shaky territory.
“So we have a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon. We have a ceasefire between Trump and Iran,” Maher quipped. “And fingers crossed, we might even have one between Trump and the pope.”
The tension between Trump and Leo, 70, has been building for months, with the pontiff repeatedly criticizing the administration’s mass deportation push and broader foreign policy. He has blasted the crackdown as “extremely disrespectful” to immigrant communities while warning against militaristic posturing on the world stage.
Trump, 79, unsurprisingly, didn’t take the pope’s latest critique on the chin.
After a 60 Minutes segment echoed the pope’s criticism, the president unleashed a furious 344-word Truth Social rant on Sunday, branding Leo “WEAK on crime” and “terrible for Foreign Policy.” He also took swipes at the Catholic Church’s COVID-19 response and even suggested the Chicago-born pope wouldn’t have been elected if Trump weren’t in the White House.
Maher pointed out that Trump’s attacks follow the same script every time—right down to his predictable “weak on crime” talking point.
“Yeah, because he’s not a detective in Detroit,” Maher joked of Trump’s “weak on crime” dig. “Popes don’t fight crime. Have you seen their record of pedophilia? I mean, it’s not great.”
The comedian framed the clash as just the latest example of Trump’s instinct to pick fights with anyone, anywhere—no matter how strange the matchup.
“Trump—he’s always going to Trump,” Maher said. “You can’t stop whoever he gets into a fight with.”
And this one didn’t end with Trump’s rant.
Leo fired back on Monday, saying he “has no fear” of the administration and would continue to “speak loudly” against what he described as a war fueled by a “delusion of omnipotence.”
Then, during a stop in Cameroon as part of a four-country African tour, the pope escalated further—warning that the world is “being ravaged by a handful of tyrants” and calling for a “decisive change of course.” He also took aim at leaders like Trump who weaponize religion to justify conflict.
He later sharpened that message in a pointed post on X, condemning those who “manipulate religion and the very name of God for their own military, economic, and political gain.”
The back-and-forth appears to have rattled parts of Trump’s base, particularly Catholic supporters already uneasy over his recent provocations—including a now-deleted AI-generated image depicting him as Jesus.
By Thursday, Trump seemed to dial things down, telling reporters he’s “not fighting” with the pope—just “disagreeing.”
After laying out the volleys from both sides, Maher joked that the feud had left him genuinely conflicted on who to root for.
“I don’t know who to vote for in this one,” Maher said. “I really don’t. I mean, I don’t like the old white guy with the real estate empire—but I have my issues with Trump too.”
