Donald Trump launched an unusually direct attack on Pope Leo late Sunday, drawing swift condemnation from members of the Catholic Church’s 1.4 billion-strong flock.
The U.S. president, in an apparent response to the pope's growing criticisms of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran and the Trump administration's hard-line immigration policies, said Leo was "terrible."
"Pope Leo is WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy," Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.
Catholics on social media quickly lambasted Trump for attacking the leader of their Church, who they believe is the successor of St. Peter, one of Jesus' 12 apostles.
"There is no ambiguity about the situation now," Massimo Faggioli, an expert on the papacy, told Reuters.
