What is Pope Leo XIV’s opinion of Trump? Here’s what his relationship with the US President looks like

The Papal Conclave began on Wednesday May 7 and ended in little more than a day when white smoke emerged from the Vatican. The American Cardinal Robert Prevost will take the name Leo XIV.

Originally from Chicago, United States, the 69-year-old pontiff has spent much of his career in Peru but he holds the distinction of being the first American to lead the Catholic Church. Despite being an American, Leo XIV has been publicly critical of the Trump administration, specifically Vice President J. D. Vance and his new immigration policies.

On February 3, 2025 the new Pontiff shared some thoughts via his X account, @drprevost, sharing an article entitled “JD Vance is wrong: Jesus doesn’t ask us to rank our love for others”. The article was written by columnist Kat Armas and published in the National Catholic Reporter, attacking the anti-immigration statements made by Vance on January 29 of this year during an interview with Fox News.

Vance had said: “There is a Christian concept: love your family, love your neighbor, love your community, love your fellow citizens, and then prioritize the rest of the world. A lot of the far left has completely reversed that,”

Both Armas and the newly elected Pope Leo XIV agree that this position is contrary to the beliefs and values of the Catholic religion and the Bible itself by limiting love to “lineages or geographical boundaries.”

“The point was not to put limits on love. It was about tearing them down: taking the gospel beyond familiar spaces and into contested ones,” wrote Armas.

The new Pope on Trump’s immigration policies

The episode was repeated 10 days later, when Prevost reposted an article from ‘America, the Jesuit Review’ titled “Pope Francis‘ letter, J.D. Vance’s ‘ordo amoris’ and what the Gospel asks of us all on immigration.”

The author, Sam Sawyer, reviews a letter sent by Pope Francis to Bishops of the US asking that they “welcome the foreigner who seeks the safety and livelihood he cannot find in his home country,” and taking issue with “identifying, tacitly or explicitly, the irregular status of some migrants with crime.”

“A nation cannot simply decide what it wants to provide for its own people and not for others,” Pope Francis, closely aligned with Prevost, wrote in the letter.

The new pope has also publicly taken a stand against the death penalty, as reflected in a social media post written in March 2015, in which he wrote: “It is time to eliminate the death penalty.”

“A great honor” for Trump

After the announcement of Habemus Papam and the election of Robert Prevost as successor to Pope Francis, President Donald Trump took to Truth Social to issue a message to the new Pontiff.

“Congratulations to Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, who has just been named Pope. It is a great honor to know that he is the first American Pope. What a thrill, and what a great honor for our country. I can’t wait to meet Pope Leo XIV - it will be a very meaningful moment!” he posted.

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