President Donald Trump’s escalating public feud with Pope Leo has drawn fierce condemnation from commentators and political observers, with author and Substack writer Wajahat Ali delivering one of the sharpest rebukes during an appearance from 22:33 on Piers Morgan Uncensored, arguing that Trump had not merely insulted a religious figure but had picked a fight with the single most popular American alive.
“Donald Trump in this disastrous war has attacked the Pope eight times on Easter, the holiest day for Christians,” Ali said, describing the repeated attacks as both politically catastrophic and morally indefensible. He noted that Pope Leo, the first American pope, carries a 34-point net favourability rating according to a recent NBC News poll, compared to Trump’s rating of minus 12. “Forty-two percent of Americans view the Pope favourably compared to 41% for Trump,” Ali added, framing the confrontation as one Trump could not possibly win.
Ali further catalogued a series of provocative actions by Trump that he argued compounded the damage. On Easter Sunday, Trump posted what Ali described as a blasphemous image of himself styled as a Red Cross medic with miraculous healing powers, dressed to evoke Jesus Christ. When challenged, Trump reportedly claimed the image depicted him as a Red Cross worker rather than a religious figure — a defence Ali dismissed outright. “Everyone’s like, please, now you’re lying to us,” he said.
The religious dimension of the Iran war, Ali argued, had become one of its most politically toxic subplots. He pointed to Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth’s repeated invocations of biblical scripture during Pentagon press briefings as evidence of what he called a “cosplay crusade” being waged alongside an already deeply unpopular military conflict. Ali noted that Hegseth had publicly quoted what he described as Ezekiel 25:17 — a passage Ali identified as drawn not from scripture but from the film Pulp Fiction.
Former Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, also appearing on the programme, echoed Ali’s sentiments with considerable force. “I don’t understand why we have to attack also the Pope,” Renzi said. “Pope Leo, Robert Prevost from Chicago — is the real witness, hero and icon of the American dream today.” Renzi described Trump’s conduct as not merely a political error but an act of blasphemy, stating plainly: “This is not ridiculous. This is blasphemous.”
Host Piers Morgan noted the broader political arithmetic, observing that 20 percent of Americans are Catholic, many of whom had voted for Trump, and questioning what strategic logic, if any, underpinned the president’s repeated attacks on a figure of such widespread reverence. Read_More…