Stephen Colbert, host of The Late Show, addressed Trump’s attacks on Pope Leo XIV over the weekend during an episode of the program.
“A couple of embarrassing setbacks for Trump and his team, but Trump did the mature thing and attacked the pope. Last night, he posted: ‘Pope Leo is weak on crime.’ Yeah, man: He’s the pope. He visits people in prison,” Colbert said on Monday (13).
In his monologue, Colbert described the lengthy post Trump shared on his own social network, Truth Social, last Sunday (12) as “unhinged.” In the caption of a post on his Instagram profile, the host said Trump’s “cyberbullying” of the pope opened a “new circle of hell.”
“According to an Italian religious historian, not even Hitler or Mussolini attacked the pope so directly and publicly. It’s never a good thing when someone says: ‘You really should be more discreet and respectful. You know, like Hitler,’” Colbert quipped in the segment.
In the post, Trump blamed the religious leader for speaking out against the war involving the U.S. and Israel with Iran. “I don’t want a Pope who thinks it’s okay for Iran to have a nuclear weapon. I don’t want a Pope who thinks it’s terrible that America attacked Venezuela, a country that was sending massive amounts of drugs into the United States and, even worse, emptying its prisons, including murderers, drug dealers, and criminals, into our country,” Trump wrote.
“And I don’t want a Pope who criticizes the President of the United States because I am doing exactly what I was elected, in a landslide, to do—setting record crime numbers and creating the greatest stock market in history.”
“Leo should be grateful because, as everyone knows, he was a shocking surprise. He wasn’t on any list to be Pope, and he was only put there by the Church because he was American, and they thought it would be the best way to deal with President Donald J. Trump. If I weren’t in the White House, Leo wouldn’t be in the Vatican,” the American president also said.
“Unfortunately, Leo is weak on crime, weak on nuclear weapons, doesn’t fit well with me… Leo should get himself together as Pope, use common sense, stop catering to the radical left, and focus on being a Great Pope, not a politician. This is hurting him badly and, more importantly, hurting the Catholic Church!”
Trump’s post came after Pope Leo said on X that he “would not bless the conflict,” adding that “anyone who is a disciple of Christ, the Prince of Peace, is never on the side of those who once wielded the sword and today drop bombs.”
“Military action will not create space for freedom or times of peace, which come only through the patient promotion of coexistence and dialogue among peoples,” he wrote on his social media last week.
After the lengthy post, Pope Leo spoke with NBC News about Trump’s message. “I am not afraid of the Trump administration, nor of speaking out loud about the message of the Gospel, which I believe is what I am here to do, what the Church is here to do,” he said.
“We are not politicians; we do not deal with foreign policy from the same perspective he may understand, but I believe in the message of the Gospel as a peacemaker.”
Photos and video: Creative Commons / Public domain / Instagram @colbertlateshow. This content was created with the help of AI and reviewed by the editorial team.
