President Trump’s attacks on Pope Leo XIV are causing fresh headaches for Republicans, who are counting on the votes of Catholics to maintain control of Congress in this year’s midterm elections.
Mr. Trump’s broadsides against Leo this week prompted widespread condemnation from Catholic bishops, activists and lay leaders, who accused the president of being “disrespectful,” “offensive” and “immature.”
Mr. Trump’s decision to pick a fight with Leo, the first American pontiff, is the latest in a series of episodes this spring that have complicated efforts by Republicans to make the case that they are tackling what voters say is their central concern this year: the rising cost of living.
First, Mr. Trump went to war with Iran, opening a rift with prominent leaders of his MAGA movement, who accused him of breaking his “America First” campaign promise. Perhaps more crucially for independent voters, the war has spiked gas prices and rattled the economy.
Next, Mr. Trump angered some Christians with a profane social media post on Easter Sunday that demanded that Iran reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Two days later, his pledge to bring mass destruction to Iran brought fresh condemnation from across the political spectrum.
Some now say that Mr. Trump’s display of animosity toward Leo will further erode his support among the Catholic voters in Rust Belt states, suburbs and border counties who moved toward the Republican Party in the 2024 election.
“His attacks on Pope Leo are inexcusable, disrespectful and deeply disturbing,” said Representative Debbie Dingell, Democrat of Michigan, who is Catholic and hails from a critical battleground state. “Pope Leo is an example for all of us, someone who has devoted his life to humility, service and values taught in the Gospel — not anything our current president practices or understands.”
Others noted the political malpractice of picking fights with popular figures instead of talking about how to help struggling Americans.
“You really don’t want to do some unforced errors like this,” said Joshua Mercer, a co-founder of Catholic Vote, a conservative organization that mobilized voters for Mr. Trump in 2024. “We think it’s really helpful to try to focus on what can make, as he says, America great again, and make things more affordable for families to grow and prosper.”
By Monday afternoon, the president still hadn’t gotten that message. Accepting a McDonald’s order from a DoorDash courier outside the Oval Office, Mr. Trump spoke less about the purpose of this staged event — hailing the “no tax on tips” provision in his 2025 tax law — than about Leo.
Asked if he would apologize to the pope, the president said: “There’s nothing to apologize for. He’s wrong.”
At the root of the extraordinary dispute between the president and the pope is Leo’s criticism of Mr. Trump’s decision to go to war with Iran.
The pope was offering a “courageous call” for peace and addressing the moral issues around the Iran war, said John Yep, president of Catholics for Catholics, a conservative organization that has hosted prayer galas at Mar-a-Lago, Mr. Trump’s Florida estate.
“Catholics are not blind sheep that just follow,” said Mr. Yep, who described himself at “saddened” and disheartened” by Mr. Trump’s rhetoric. “We really look for, try to discern, which candidates are the best to represent our Catholic values, so it’s incumbent upon the president to really realize that this needs to be addressed.”
With the midterms more than six months away, it remains unclear how strongly voters will weigh Mr. Trump’s feud with the pope.
White Catholics, whose support helped propel Mr. Trump to a second term, remain one of the country’s largest swing voting groups. Small shifts in their voting could have an outsize impact on competitive House and Senate races in Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin, where they make up a significant portion of the electorate.
And the Catholic vote could be important in parts of Arizona and South Texas, where a heavy concentration of Latino Catholics could influence contests.
Republican politicians largely avoided the subject on Monday. Vice President JD Vance said on Fox News that a picture Mr. Trump posted on social media earlier in the day that depicted him as a Jesus-like figure was meant as a joke and that “it would be best for the Vatican to stick to matters of morality.” Marco Rubio, another prominent Catholic in the administration, remained silent as Mr. Trump attacked Leo.
Mr. Trump spent years tangling with the previous pope, Francis, over his immigration policies. Those public dust-ups had little impact on his support among white Catholics, with majorities backing Mr. Trump in all three of his presidential races.
But the effects of his attacks on Leo may be more long-lasting, said Denise Murphy McGraw, the national co-chair of Catholics Vote Common Good, a nonprofit group that opposed Mr. Trump’s candidacy in 2024.
An NBC poll conducted last month found that Leo was far more popular than Mr. Trump.
“This is our American pope,” Ms. McGraw said. “This isn’t some guy from Italy or South America or Poland. Everyone is proud.”
Some of Mr. Trump’s strongest allies countered that the president’s attacks against a “globalist” Vatican would help solidify his MAGA base. Portraying the pope as a liberal politician — and not, as Catholics believe, the earthly representation of God — could help the president neutralize the moral authority of the Vatican’s opposition to the war in Iran, they said.
Steve Bannon, a longtime Trump ally, argued that conservative Catholics were more likely to side with the administration than with the pontiff on issues such as immigration enforcement.
“It is good in that it gets more of his conservative Catholic base energized,” Mr. Bannon said. “President Trump is smart politically to do this.”
Jennifer Medina contributed reporting from Los Angeles.
Lisa Lerer is a national political reporter for The Times, based in New York. She has covered American politics for nearly two decades.
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