Meloni condemns Trump’s attack on Pope Leo XIV as unacceptable

Giorgia Meloni broke with Donald Trump in unusually blunt terms, calling his attack on Pope Leo XIV “unacceptable” and defending the pope’s right, as head of the Catholic Church, to call for peace and condemn war.

The clash began after Leo criticized the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran, prompting Trump to lash out on Truth Social. Trump said he did not want a pope who thought it was acceptable for Iran to have a nuclear weapon, described Leo as “WEAK on Crime” and “terrible for Foreign Policy,” and suggested the pontiff had been elected because he was American and seen as the best way to deal with Trump. Trump’s refusal to apologize sharpened the split between two leaders Meloni has long tried to keep close.

The episode placed Italy’s prime minister in a difficult position. Meloni has cultivated especially warm ties with Trump in recent years, but she also governs a country where the Vatican remains a powerful institution and Catholic identity still shapes public life. Her statement came as Leo was flying from Rome to Algiers at the start of a 10-day trip to Africa that will also take him to Cameroon, Angola and Equatorial Guinea.

Italian political and church figures quickly rallied behind the pope. Meloni’s first response also drew criticism for not naming Trump directly, giving opposition figures room to accuse her of hedging. Angelo Bonelli of the AVS party said he was outraged that a prime minister invoking Christian values could not clearly condemn what he called Trump’s “unacceptable blasphemy” against the pope and the Catholic world. Matteo Salvini, who has also aligned himself with Trump, took a sharper line, saying that attacking Leo was neither wise nor helpful. Former centre-left prime minister Matteo Renzi said it had been centuries since such a blatant act of aggression against the Roman Pontiff had been seen, and argued that Catholics and non-believers alike should defend him.

The political cost for Meloni is complicated by public mood in Italy, where a recent Reuters analysis found 66% of people held a negative view of Trump, linked to his aggressive foreign policy. Leo, meanwhile, pushed back from aboard the papal flight to Algiers, saying he had “no fear” of the Trump administration, would keep speaking out against war, and would not enter into a debate with Trump.

The rupture went beyond personal insult. It exposed how quickly nationalist solidarity frays when Catholic authority, foreign policy and domestic political pressures collide, even among leaders who usually speak the same language of the right.