The president versus the pope
4/14/202623 min
President Trump launched new attacks at Pope Leo XIV over the weekend, calling the religious leader “Weak on Crime, Weak on Nuclear Weapons,” in a social media post. We discuss what’s behind the tensions between the president and the religious leader and whether they could affect Trump’s political support.
This episode: voting correspondent Miles Parks, religion correspondent Jason DeRose, and White House correspondent Danielle Kurtzleben.
This podcast was produced by Casey Morell and Bria Suggs, and edited by Rachel Baye.
Our executive producer is Muthoni Muturi.
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First 90 secondsSpeaker 00:00
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Miles Parks· Host0:16
[upbeat music] Hey there, it's the NPR Politics Podcast. I'm Miles Parks, I cover voting.
Danielle Kurtzleben· Host0:25
I'm Danielle Kurtzleben, I cover the White House.
Miles Parks· Host0:27
And we also have NPR's religion correspondent, Jason DeRose, here with us. Hi, Jason.
Jason DeRose· Guest0:31
Hello. Good to be back.
Miles Parks· Host0:33
Yeah, it's great to have you. And today on the show, President Trump versus the Pope. These two men have not seen eye to eye on many things since Leo XIV was elected last spring, and that came to a head this weekend. Jason, just get us up to speed on what happened.
Jason DeRose· Guest0:47
Many things have happened in the last, uh, few days. Uh, well, Sunday evening, uh, Trump published a long post on social media that called the Pope weak, uh, very liberal, saying he was soft on crime and wanted to have nuclear weapons in Iran, and really, really quite the tirade. And then, um, after he posted this, he spoke to reporters, and here's some of what he said.
Donald Trump· Soundbite1:10
We don't like it. We don't like a Pope that's gonna say that it's okay to have a nuclear weapon. We don't want a Pope that says crime is okay in our cities. I don't like it. I'm not a big fan of Pope Leo. He's a very liberal person, and he's a man that doesn't believe in stopping crime.
Jason DeRose· Guest1:28
Now, I will say that the Pope is