A new poll is adding fresh political embarrassment for President Donald Trump amid his escalating dispute with Pope Leo, showing the pontiff significantly ahead in public favorability.
Trump and Pope Leo, who is the first American pontiff, have often been at odds with each other during Trump’s second term.
He refused to join Trump’s ‘Board of Peace’ and has neglected to visit the U.S.
He has also criticized the administration’s mass deportation push and broader foreign policy.
But most recently, Trump and the head of the Catholic Church have fallen out over Trump’s vastly unpopular war in Iran.
Amid their feud, polling shows that Pope Leo is viewed more positively than Trump.
A new Reuters/Ipsos survey shows Trump with a 36 percent approval rating and 62 percent disapproval, unchanged from last month and tied for his lowest level of the second term.
Meanwhile, the poll, conducted among 4,557 U.S. adults between April 15–20, shows that Pope Leo’s favorability stands at 60 percent.
It also shows that Americans view the pope more favorably than prominent Democrats, including California Governor Gavin Newsom and former Vice President Kamala Harris.
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.
It comes after Trump lashed out at Pope Leo in a 344-word Truth Social post, branding him “WEAK on crime” and “terrible for Foreign Policy” following remarks by the pope focused on calls for peace amid escalating violence, comments that Trump interpreted as an implicit rebuke of the joint U.S.–Israeli military campaign in Iran, which has seen more than 1,700 civilians and around 250 children killed, as well as 13 U.S. service members.
Later in the week, Trump falsely claimed the pope had endorsed Iran acquiring a nuclear weapon.
“I’m not fighting with him. The pope made a statement. He says, Iran can have a nuclear weapon. I say Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon,” Trump told CNN.
There is no record of Pope Leo ever suggesting Iran should be allowed to obtain a nuclear weapon. In fact, he has repeatedly called for nuclear disarmament and warned against the dangers of escalation.
Pope Leo pushed back on Trump’s remarks, saying he “has no fear” of the administration and would continue to “speak loudly” against what he described as a war driven by a “delusion of omnipotence.”
“I have no fear of the Trump administration, or speaking out loudly of the message of the Gospel, which is what I believe I am here to do,” Leo said.
The pope also reacted to Trump’s expletive-filled Easter post in which he threatened to destroy Iran’s civilian infrastructure, and another one soon after in which he warned that a “whole civilization will die tonight.”
Leo called the threat “truly unacceptable”.
Trump’s war in Iran and his threat has divided his supporters, with the president receiving criticism from the likes of Megyn Kelly, Candace Owens, Alex Jones and Sean Hannity.
“The 25th Amendment needs to be invoked. He is a genocidal lunatic. Our Congress and military need to intervene. We are beyond madness,” Owens wrote.
Amid Trump’s actions, the poll showed that only 36 percent of Americans approve of U.S. military strikes against Iran
Only 25 percent of those surveyed said they believe the U.S. strikes on Iran will make the country safer, including 6 percent of Democrats and 57 percent of Republicans.
