Colbert Rips Trump and Pope Leo Clash Over War, Foreign Policy

Stephen Colbert used his monologue to turn a papal feud into something bigger than late-night comedy: a national argument about war, foreign policy and the uneasy place of Catholic voters in Donald Trump’s coalition.

The host of The Late Show recapped what he called “yet another day when the entire world is on edge over President Trump’s senseless and elective war — with the pope.” That clash took shape after Pope Leo XIV criticized the U.S.-Israel war in Iran, then pulled the Vatican squarely into the center of America’s political and religious culture war.

Trump escalated first on Truth Social, calling Leo “WEAK on Crime” and “terrible for Foreign Policy” and telling the pope to “stop catering to the Radical Left.” He then widened the attack in remarks to reporters, saying he was “not a big fan of Pope Leo” and did not think the pontiff was “doing a very good job.” Trump also defended a deleted AI-generated image of himself portrayed as Jesus, saying he thought the picture was of him as a doctor.

Leo, the first U.S.-born pope and a Chicago native elevated to the papacy in May 2025, answered aboard a papal flight to Algeria at the start of an 11-day trip to Africa. He said he was not a politician, did not want to enter a debate with Trump and had “no fear” of the Trump administration. He also said the Vatican’s peace appeals were rooted in the Gospel and that he would continue to speak out against war.

The exchange drew unusually sharp attention because a sitting American president and an American pope are now speaking past each other in public, over a war that has already unsettled voters and church leaders. Reuters and other outlets described the confrontation as highly unusual and unprecedented in modern history, and one Vatican journalist summed up the dynamic by saying Trump and Leo were like “oil and water.”

The fallout spread quickly beyond Washington and Rome. Italian political and church figures rallied behind Leo, while Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni was left balancing Italy’s close ties to the Vatican with her alliance with Trump. The dispute also renewed scrutiny of Trump’s standing with Catholic voters, a bloc that could feel the political strain of a president openly dismissing the pope while the war in Iran remains a live domestic issue.