Even Mar-a-Lago’s own priest backs the Pope over Trump

The bishop of Palm Beach, home to Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, has rebuked the President for his ‘violent’ attacks on Pope Leo XIV.

Bishop Manuel de Jesús Rodríguez slammed the US leader’s ongoing spat with the head of the Catholic Church.

Worshippers at Sunday Mass were met with a projected message on a screen reading: ‘The Diocese of Palm Beach stands firm with our Holy Father, Pope Leo XIV, and strongly rejects the disrespectful and violent attacks that Donald J. Trump has directed against the Holy Father.

‘These attacks also constitute a grave violation of the religious freedom enshrined in the Constitution of the United States and, as such, harm the rights of the American Catholic faithful.

‘Please pray for the safety of the Holy Father,’ the statement concluded.

Yesterday, Pope Leo said it ‘wasn’t in his interest’ to debate Trump about the war in Iran after the US leader threw more jabs his way.

He clarified that his remarks earlier this week, decrying a world that is being ‘ravaged by a handful of tyrants’ were not aimed at the US president.

The speech made headlines around the world after being read as the pope fighting back against the administration and taking on Trump head-on.

But Leo, the first US pope, told reporters today that the text ‘was prepared two weeks ago, well before the president ever commented on me and on the message of peace that I am promoting’.

‘There’s been a certain narrative that has not been accurate in all of its aspects, but because of the political situation created when, on the first day of the trip, the president of the United States made some comments about me,’ he said.

On Sunday, as Leo prepared to embark on his tour, Trump called him ‘WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy’ in a bizarre rant posted on Truth Social.

Trump also posted an AI-generated image of himself as a Jesus-like figure, drawing widespread criticism even from some religious conservatives who typically support him, before removing it.

Trump appeared to be responding to Leo’s growing criticism in recent weeks of the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran.

Pope Leo declared on Monday that he would keep speaking out about the war.

Trump then followed up on his criticism of the pope on Tuesday.

On Thursday, Leo blasted leaders who spend billions on wars and said the world was ‘being ravaged by a handful of tyrants’, though he did not mention Trump directly again.

‘As it happens, it was looked at as if I was trying to debate the president, which is not in my interest at all,’ he said on Saturday.

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