Vice President JD Vance thanked Pope Leo XIV on Saturday for comments that appeared to ease tensions with President Donald Trump following their public feud.
While traveling to Angola during his Africa tour, the pope said international media had promoted a ‘certain narrative that has not been accurate in all of its aspects.’
He added that he has consistently opposed war in general, not only the conflict in Iran, and clarified that his Thursday remarks in Cameroon about a ‘handful of tyrants’ spending billions on war were not directed at Trump.
Additionally, he said the speech was prepared two weeks ago, ‘well before the president ever commented on myself and the message of peace that I am promoting.’
Vance, who is Catholic, was pleased with this clarification, while acknowledging there are real differences of opinion between the administration and the pope.
‘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 on X.
‘Pope Leo preaches the gospel, as he should, and that will inevitably mean he offers his opinions on the moral issues of the day. The President – and the entire administration – work to apply those moral principles in a messy world,’ he added. ‘He will be in our prayers, and I hope that we’ll be in his.’
Trump’s feud with the pope kick off last week, when the pontiff condemned the president’s warning that ‘a whole civilization will die tonight’ if Iran failed to meet his deadline to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
‘Today, as we all know, there was this threat against the entire people of Iran, and this is truly unacceptable,’ the pontiff said on April 7.
‘People want peace,’ he added. ‘I would invite the citizens of all the countries involved to contact the authorities – political leaders, congressmen – to ask them to work for peace.’
Pope Leo also said attacks on civilian infrastructure ‘are against international law’. Trump had previously threatened to destroy bridges and power plants in Iran.
On April 12, Trump posted a lengthy statement to Truth Social accusing Pope Leo of being ‘WEAK on crime’ and ‘terrible for Foreign Policy’.
‘I don’t want a Pope who thinks it’s OK for Iran to have a Nuclear Weapon,’ Trump wrote, adding, ‘And I don’t want a Pope who criticizes the President of the United States because I’m doing exactly what I was elected, IN A LANDSLIDE, to do.’
The next day, Trump followed this up by posting an AI-generated image of himself in red-and-white robes. He appeared to be healing the sick with his hands, something Jesus was said to have done in the Bible.
The commander in chief quickly deleted the post after it prompted strong backlash from Catholics and even religious MAGA supporters.
When asked about it, Trump said he thought the image ‘was me as a doctor’.
As Trump’s number two, Vance came to his defense while the debacle played out. On Tuesday, during a Turning Point USA event in Athens, Georgia, Vance said the pope should ‘be careful when he talks about matters of theology’.
He also said that it doesn’t bother him when the pope speaks about ‘issues of the day’, adding that Christian leaders should comment on public policy.
After that, he said the pope needs to remember the just war theory, the idea that armed conflict can be justified if it meets certain criteria, such as self-defense or to stop aggression from another power.
Vance questioned if God would be on the side of the Americans who liberated Europe from the Nazis in World War II.
And in a Fox News interview on Monday, Vance said Trump posting himself as a Jesus-like figure was ‘a joke’ and that Trump alone took it down ‘because he recognized that a lot of people weren’t understanding his humor’.
