A Republican lawmaker has condemned what he refers to as Donald Trump’s “holy war” in opposition to Pope Leo XIV.
Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana, a protracted supporter of Trump and the ultraconservative Maga motion, condemned the president’s assaults on the pope throughout a Fox News interview on Saturday.
“I love the president like a taco,” stated Kennedy, utilizing an odd flip of phrase. He added: “I don’t always agree with him, but I think he wants a better world. But I don’t agree with him about this new holy war with the pope.” The senator’s criticism, and his selection of phrases, may not sit effectively with Trump, on condition that his critics have been using the word “taco” as an acronym for “Trump always chickens out”.
Kennedy is a Methodist and never a Catholic, a degree he harassed within the interview, maybe to differentiate himself from the primary Catholic president, Democrat John F Kennedy. The Republican senator and his spouse based their native church chapter, according to his authorities biography.
Kennedy added that he has “great respect for Catholicism” and urged that the pope must be “entitled to his opinion”. “Why do we want to have a fight with the pope?” Kennedy continued. “It’s a distraction. And the press just sucks it up like a Hoover Deluxe [vacuum cleaner].”
Kennedy’s newest interview comes as Trump and the pope have been locked in a days-long feud over the US-Israel struggle in opposition to Iran.
Two weeks in the past, Leo responded to Trump’s threat {that a} “whole civilization will die” in Iran if the nation didn’t finish its blockade of the strait of Hormuz by calling Trump’s remarks “truly unacceptable”, famous “attacks on civilian infrastructure are against international law” and urged Americans to contact their members of Congress to name for peace.
In a Truth Social publish final Sunday, Trump called Pope Leo “WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy”.
Trump added: “I don’t want a Pope who thinks it’s OK for Iran to have a Nuclear Weapon.” The pope has, in truth, spoken out in opposition to what he called “the profound horrors wrought by nuclear weapons”.
The president has repeatedly praised Pope Leo XIV’s eldest brother, Louis Prevost, an avid Trump supporter who lives in Florida.
Last week, Trump additionally posted an AI-generated picture depicting himself as Jesus Christ, which even some Christian supporters of the president denounced as blasphemous.
JD Vance, whose forthcoming guide is about his current conversion to Catholicism, has defended Trump amid anger amongst Christian voters. “Stick to matters of, you know, what’s going on in the Catholic church,” the vice-president instructed Fox News when requested if he agreed with Trump’s assaults on the pope. “And let the president of the United States stick to dictating American public policy,” Vance added.
Leo told reporters on Saturday that he had no intention of getting a back-and-forth debate with Trump, however famous that he has “no fear” of the Trump administration.
