President Donald Trump's public spat with Pope Leo XIV has cut the Republican Party at the worst possible time, a report has claimed.
Trump's administration has engaged in direct conflict with Pope Leo XIV, the first American pontiff, over theology, foreign policy, and Christian values. The tension escalated when Vice President JD Vance publicly criticized the pope's understanding of Catholic doctrine during a Turning Point conference, stating, "I think it's very, very important for the pope to be careful when he talks about matters of theology."
Pope Leo XIV responded by directly rebuking Vance's ideology, declaring, "JD Vance is wrong: Jesus doesn't ask us to rank our love for others." The pope challenged the administration's Christian nationalist worldview, which prioritizes national interests over universal compassion.
The conflict intensified over Trump's Iran war. Pope Leo XIV publicly stated, "God does not bless any conflict," directly contradicting Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's Christian nationalist rhetoric justifying military violence.
The New York Times reporter Jennifer Medina reported that some Catholic voters who had previously endorsed Trump were now unsure whether they could bring themselves to vote for the GOP in the midterm elections.
Stuart Sepulvida, a Vietnam veteran who voted for Trump three times, says the recent split with Pope Leo XIV has led him to question where his vote will be placed at the next election.
Medina wrote, "He voted for President Trump three times but has never felt more betrayed by an American president than when Mr. Trump denounced Pope Leo as 'weak on crime' and 'terrible for foreign policy.' 'It was very disturbing to me to hear both of them clashing like they did.'
"Now, he is reconsidering whether he will vote Republican this year." Sepulvida also found the AI-generated image of Trump as Jesus Christ to be in bad taste. "It just isn't what a president should do," he said. "The pope speaks for his people. He is beyond politics."
Polling figures suggest Hispanic Catholics in particular were beginning to abandon the Republican Party. Medina wrote, "Mr. Trump won 55 percent of Catholic voters in the 2024 election, compared to 43 percent who voted for former Vice President Kamala Harris, according to Pew Research Center.
"The most sizable gains came from Hispanic Catholics. While Joseph R. Biden Jr. won their votes by a 35-point margin in 2020, the Democratic advantage shrunk to 17 points in 2024. Now, just 18 percent of Hispanic Catholics said they support most or all of President Trump’s agenda, according to a poll from Pew released earlier this year."