It was just four months ago that President Donald J. Trump said the quiet part out loud, declaring that his power could be restrained only by his “own morality, his own mind.” When Trump attacked Pope Leo XIV on social media Sunday night and posted a picture of himself as a Christlike figure, it wasn’t just Catholics who were disgusted. Sadly, this tracks with a man who sells Trump steaks, Trump coins, Trump Bibles and fraudulent Trump degrees. He worships at the altar of Donald J. Trump.
Standing in the breach, Leo and other prominent Catholic leaders have spoken out about Trump’s immoral war, his immigration enforcement overreach and his cuts to health care. They are not responding in political terms but moral ones. If the president’s reaction is any guide, they have struck a nerve.
I am not one to give advice — political or moral — to Trump, especially as he is on the ropes in a midterm election year. As he and Vice President JD Vance belabor a war of words with the pope, anyone would ask why any officeholder, much less the president, would double down on images and statements that alienate voters of faith and other segments of the electorate whose turnout is critical to winning in November. But there are issues to understand that are much larger than politics.
Read Mitch Landrieu’s analysis here.
