Vice President JD Vance thanked Pope Leo on April 18 for helping to cool a public feud with President Donald Trump over the Iran war. Vance posted on X hours after the pontiff told reporters he had no interest in debating the president.
JD Vance posts about Pope Leo amid Donald Trump feud
JD Vance addressed the situation directly in a post on Saturday night. The vice president responded to Pope Leo’s comments that he did not intend to debate Donald Trump. Vance pushed back on how the feud has been portrayed. “I am grateful to Pope Leo for saying this. While the media narrative constantly gins up conflict–and yes, real disagreements have happened and will happen – the reality is often much more complicated,” Vance wrote.
He acknowledged the pope’s role in speaking on moral issues and contrasted it with the administration’s responsibilities. “Pope Leo preaches the gospel, as he should… The President – and the entire administration – work to apply those moral principles in a messy world. He will be in our prayers, and I hope that we’ll be in his,” Vance added.
Pope Leo addressed the controversy earlier the same day during his 11-day Africa tour. He said he spoke broadly about global peace and not about a specific political conflict. “There’s been a certain narrative that has not been accurate in all of its aspects,” he said. Pope Leo added that much of the coverage turned into “commentary on commentary.”
He also clarified that he did not intend to engage directly with Donald Trump. “And yet as it happens, it was looked at as if I was trying to debate again the president, which is not in my interest at all,” he said.
The disagreement in question began when Pope Leo warned that God ignores prayers from leaders waging war with “hands full of blood.” The sermon got immediate backlash from Trump, who fired off on Truth Social. He called the pontiff “WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy.”
Originally reported by Devanshi Basu for Mandatory.
