Lesley-Ann Jones, centre, is shocked at US President’s latest outburst (Image: Express / Getty / Truth Social)
Not even Hitler or Mussolini attacked the Pope so directly or so publicly. This, the take of Italian Church historian and papal expert Massimo Faggioli in response to Donald Trump’s monstrous broadside against Pope Leo XIV, encapsulates how deeply offensive his words are to the 1.4 billion baptised Roman Catholics throughout the world.
According to Trump, if he were not in the White House, the first US-born pope would not be in the Vatican. “He should get his act together,” said the President. “Use common sense, stop catering to the Radical Left, and focus on being a great pope, not a politician. It’s hurting him very badly, and more importantly, it’s hurting the Catholic Church.”
We have long had reasons to believe that the US president considers himself to be above the law. Must we now assume he feels above religion too? If his Sunday night rantings on his Truth Social platform and tirades to journalists upon landing are anything to go by, there is no alternative conclusion.
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To those in doubt, his obscene sharing of an image depicting himself as a glowing Messiah bestowing healing on a sick man in an unmistakable comparison of himself to Jesus Christ will have shocked not only Catholics but Christians of every denomination. I am a non-Catholic regular worshipper. It shocked me.
Trump’s John Lennon moment has arrived. The late Beatle’s March 1966 declaration that his group’s popularity exceeded even that of Christ, when he also indicated his belief that rock music would outlast faith in Christianity, prompted uproar across America, especially in the Bible Belt of the Southern states.
There were public burnings of Beatles albums and memorabilia, their hits were dropped from radio, press conferences were abandoned, and members of the white supremacist hate group the Ku Klux Klan turned up at their concerts. The band ran for their lives, and quit live touring for good that year.
Although his remarks had been taken out of context, and despite subsequent apologies, Lennon would pay the ultimate price. Fourteen years later, in December 1980, he was murdered outside his New York City home by Mark Chapman, a fanatical Christian Beatles fan.
Extreme arrogance inevitably leads to downfall. The 47th president of the United States, long afflicted by a dangerous blindness, has at last exposed his fatal flaw. History all the way back to Julius Caesar crossing the Rubicon River with his army in 49 BC, in defiance of the Roman Senate and leading to civil war, brims with examples of narcissistic behaviour heralding catastrophic reversals of fortune.
Pope Leo may be shaken, but is not stirred. Having already stated that “a delusion of omnipotence” is to blame for the US-Israel war in Iran, he made clear from the plane carrying him to Algiers for a visit to four African countries that the Christian message is “being abused”.
“I don’t want to get into a debate with him,” His Holiness said. “I don’t think that the message of the Gospel is meant to be abused… I will continue to speak out loudly against war, looking to promote peace, promoting dialogue and multilateral relationships among the states to look for just solutions to problems. Too many innocent people are being killed. And I think someone has to stand up and say there is a better way.”
Whether you agree or disagree, it’s difficult to dispute that President Trump has plumbed new depths in his latest rant. And may yet come to regret attacking the Pope.
