Pentagon And Vatican Did Joint Damage Control — Did Trump Just Blow It Up?
President Donald Trump attacked Pope Leo
The Vatican finally broke its silence Friday, following a week of reports claiming that a January exchange between U.S. Undersecretary for War and Policy Elbridge Colby and Cardinal Christophe Pierre, then the Vatican ambassador to the United States, had gone sour, with media outlets including The Free Press reporting that the meeting had been contentious. (RELATED: Trump Takes Rare Step By Deleting Post Introducing Himself As Jesus After Christians Cry Foul)
The Vatican called such accounts of the meeting’s hostility “completely false,” saying the parties had simply discussed their views on “matters of mutual interest.”
On Thursday, the War Department’s Rapid Response Team also said the meeting was “a respectful and reasonable discussion” and that reports suggesting otherwise were “highly exaggerated and distorted.”
While neither side has released additional information about the meeting since Trump posted his Truth Social message attacking the pontiff, there is some crossover between what the administration reportedly said behind closed doors in January and what Trump announced publicly on Sunday.
“Pope Leo is WEAK on crime and terrible on foreign policy,” Trump began his tirade, in which he told the Holy Father to focus more on his Church and talk less about what the Trump administration is doing.
This statement echoes what Colby reportedly said, including that with the military might of the United States, the country could do whatever it wanted and that it would be in the Vatican’s interest to serve its interests.
Although neither party has directly confirmed or denied this in their statements, reports also allege that Colby invoked the Avignon Papacy, a period in which multiple popes operated under the French crown rather than as an independent body.
However, Trump used similar language, telling Leo directly what he would prefer the pope not say or think.
“I don’t want a pope who…” Trump said, adding that Leo “thinks it’s OK that Iran has nuclear weapons… thinks it’s terrible that America attacked Venezuela” and “criticizes the president of the United States.”
Leo has consistently spoken out against war and in favor of peaceful conflict resolution since Trump began his strikes against Israel and after Trump’s arrest of Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro, with such comments reportedly being the catalyst for the Colby-Pierre conversation.
Trump also posted a now-deleted photo of himself as Jesus Christ on Sunday, depicting him healing the sick with signs of American power behind him.
Pope Leo XIV speaks to journalists during the flight to Algiers, April 13, 2026. (Photo by Alberto PIZZOLI/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
While the pope’s office is believed to come from apostolic succession, Trump has softened his own mandate, saying he is doing “exactly what I was elected to do, IN A LANDSLIDE.”
Continuing, Trump said Leo was only elected pope because he was American and because the Church believed he would be the best way to “deal” with the president.
“If I wasn’t in the White House, Leo wouldn’t be in the Vatican,” Trump said.
Leo responded early Monday, saying he had “no fear of the Trump administration” and would “not enter the debate.”
Leo also clarified that his calls for peace were not intended as attacks, but as a promotion of the teachings of Christ aimed at promoting peacemaking and an invitation to “avoid war whenever possible.”
Although neither the Pentagon nor the Vatican have issued additional statements suggesting their responses downplayed the hostility of the meeting, Trump’s messages suggest that much of the pope’s sentiment, as laid out in the reports, may be consistent with the administration’s perspective. (RELATED: Conservatives Slam Trump for His Christ-Like Image, Lose Their Minds Over the Pope)
The White House referred the Daily Caller to the Pentagon, which, like the Vatican, did not respond to the Daily Caller’s request for comment.
