Pentagon Threatened Pope After He Criticized Trump
A lot has happened. Here are some of the things. This is the TPM Morning Memo.
Avignon, the antipopes and the WTAF
In January, a senior Pentagon official summoned the Vatican ambassador to the United States and issued a stunning threat: The free press reported this week: “The United States has the military might to do whatever it wants in the world. The Catholic Church had better take its side.”
Elbridge Colby, political undersecretary of defense, spoke with then-ambassador Cardinal Christophe Pierre about the 14th-century Avignon Papacy, a prolonged period of French royal interference in the Roman Catholic Church that culminated for a time in a duel between the popes sitting in Rome and Avignon, France (I’m condensing more than a century of papal history into a single clause).
Christopher Hale, editor of the Letters from Leo newsletter, independently confirmed the Free Press report and adds these two pieces to the schism between the American pope and the American president:
- “[S]Some Vatican officials were so alarmed by the Pentagon’s tactics that they abandoned plans for Pope Leo XIV to visit the United States later this year.
- “Other Vatican officials saw the Pentagon’s reference to an Avignon papacy as a threat to use military force against the Holy See.”
Too many layers of hubris, ignorance and ahistoricism to be fully revealed here. More to the point, a deep provincialism is also at play here, as conservative Catholics in America—especially those with a fervor for adult conversions to Catholicism—are particularly angered by internationalist popes like Leo XIV and Francis before him, who have decidedly more moderate theologies and emphasize Catholic social teaching.
The White House and Pentagon have each disputed the Free Press’s characterization of the meeting, but neither has denied its version of events.
It’s going GREAT!
Some headlines from major US media on the fragile ceasefire with Iran:
Absurd headline of the day
This would have been surreal in the 10 days before the ceasefire, but now it’s an absurdist comedy headline: US asks allies for quick plans to secure Hormuz after ceasefire.
This is particularly absurd because at the same time as the Trump administration is asking its allies for help in fixing what was broken, it is also doing this: Team Trump is planning to punish NATO countries that did not support the war in Iran.
Latest news from the Middle East…
- Iranian counterattacks against its Persian Gulf neighbors now appear to have paused.
- At least 203 people were killed and more than 1,000 injured in Lebanon on Wednesday, in the deadliest day of the conflict.
- The Strait of Hormuz remains strangled by Iran:
Four ships were allowed to pass through on Wednesday, the fewest so far in April, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence, compared with more than 100 a day before the war. Iran requires ships to establish toll terms in advance and then pay the fee in cryptocurrency or Chinese yuan, mediators and shipping brokers said.
Quotes of the day
This moment requires clarity. So let’s be clear: the Strait of Hormuz is not open. Access is restricted, conditioned and controlled.
Iran has made clear – through its statements and actions – that the crossing is subject to authorization, conditions and political influence. This is not freedom of navigation. It’s coercion.
- Mohammed Baharoon, director general of the B’huth Dubai Public Policy Research Center, a UAE think tank:
Iran is the only one satisfied with the result. They are now re-established in their role as gendarme of the Gulf. We woke up to a deal that does not reduce risk, but replaces it with greater risk.
Oversight of Trump’s Justice Department
- Ed Martin seeks to move his Washington Bar disciplinary proceedings to federal court.
- Subpoenaed former Attorney General Pam Bondi is attempting to testify before the House Oversight Committee next week about Jeffrey Epstein’s records.
- Lawfare’s Molly Roberts takes an in-depth look at why Trump’s DOJ’s prosecution of Smartmatic under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act is so suspect.
The purges: immigration judges
More than 100 immigration judges (out of some 750 total) have been fired by the Trump administration in an unprecedented purge that threatens to strip any semblance of due process from immigration proceedings.
Corruption: edition of DHS contracts
Following reporting from the WSJ and CNN last month, WaPo is tackling the burgeoning investigation into how DHS contracts were managed under Kristi Noem, Corey Lewandowski and a little-known contractor named Kara Voorhies.
Corruption: Ballroom Steel Edition
A European steelmaker is donating tens of millions of dollars of structural steel to President Trump’s ballroom project, the New York Times reports.
Court intervenes in California ballot seizure
The California Supreme Court has halted the investigation by Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco that led to the seizure of 650,000 ballots in a 2025 special election. The court’s intervention came on the same day that newly released documents show the investigation was conducted by a conservative “election watchdog” group.
An inconvenient truth for RFK Jr.?
WaPo: “The acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention delayed the release of a CDC report showing that the covid-19 vaccine cut the likelihood of emergency room visits and hospitalizations for healthy adults by about half last winter, according to two scientists familiar with the decision.
Zeldin Keynotes Confab on climate deniers
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin was the keynote speaker at a climate change deniers conference in Washington, hosted by the Heartland Institute.
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