When I posted about pope Leo criticizing warmongering leaders, I added that that it was only a matter of time before Trump attacked him, calling him a ‘low IQ person’ and the like. Trump’s repeated use of this description that he clearly sees as an insult, and his boasting of passing easy cognitive tests, is a sign of how insecure he is about his own intelligence, since no one who thinks of themselves as having even ordinary intelligence ever talks about it.

But the retaliation came quicker and even harsher than I expected.

Trump delivered an extraordinary broadside against Leo on Sunday night, saying he didn’t think the U.S.-born global leader of the Catholic Church is “doing a very good job” and that “he’s a very liberal person,” while also suggesting the pontiff should “stop catering to the Radical Left.”
…

“Pope Leo is WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy,” the president wrote in his post, adding, “I don’t want a Pope who thinks it’s OK for Iran to have a Nuclear Weapon.”
…

The president wrote, “I don’t want a Pope who thinks it’s terrible that America attacked Venezuela, a Country that was sending massive amounts of Drugs into the United States.” That was a reference to the Trump administration having ousted Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in January.

“I don’t want a Pope who criticizes the President of the United States because I’m doing exactly what I was elected, IN A LANDSLIDE, to do,” Trump added, referencing his 2024 election victory.

He then went on to suggest that the entire conclave that elects the pope was engaged in a conspiracy against him.

He also suggested in the post that Leo only got his position “because he was an American, and they thought that would be the best way to deal with President Donald J. Trump.”

“If I wasn’t in the White House, Leo wouldn’t be in the Vatican,” Trump wrote, adding, “Leo should get his act together as Pope, use Common Sense, stop catering to the Radical Left, and focus on being a Great Pope, not a Politician. It’s hurting him very badly and, more importantly, it’s hurting the Catholic Church!”

Attacking the pope was too much for even many conservative Catholics.

The pushback on Monday included conservative Catholic leaders such as Bishop Robert Barron, who serves on Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission, and called on the president to apologize to Leo. “The statements made by President Trump on Truth Social regarding the Pope were entirely inappropriate and disrespectful.”

“Donald Trump is clearly feeling the heat from Leo’s recent public condemnations of the Iran war and the need to promote peace over conflict,” said Elise Ann Allen, author of “Pope Leo XIV: The Biography.” “He is realizing that Leo is emerging as a stronger global figure, and he’s trying to remind moderate Catholics why they voted for him. But outbursts like this could backfire as they could further alienate the moderate Catholics on the fence about him. If he’s trying to win back Catholic voters, this will only help Leo’s cause, not his.”

I would have expected the pope to ignore Trump’s ravings but he is hitting back, clearly determined to show that he is undaunted and it looks like he is even relishing the chance to debate Trump, calling him out by name now.

Pope Leo said Monday that he was not scared of the White House, after U.S. President Donald Trump launched a stinging attack on the Catholic church leader.

“I have no fear of the Trump administration,” Leo told reporters on a plane to Algeria after sparking Trump’s fury by criticizing the U.S.-Israeli bombing campaign in Iran.

“I do believe in the message of the gospel, as a peacemaker,” Leo said, adding he will “not shy away from pronouncing [that] message.”

Even right wing politicians, no doubt fearful of the backlash from Catholics, are condemning Trump’s attacks on the pope.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has condemned U.S. President Donald Trump’s social media tirade against Leo XIV, even as the president continued his war of words with the first American pope.

Meloni – a Trump ally who backed the president for the Nobel Peace Prize – has recently distanced herself from the American leader following a bruising referendum defeat last month.

“I find President Trump’s remarks about the Holy Father unacceptable,” Meloni said in a statement. “The Pope is the head of the Catholic Church, and it is right and proper that he call for peace and condemn all forms of war.”

As if that wasn’t enough, Trump also posted an AI image that showed him him as Jesus, laying his hands on a sick person. This was condemned as blasphemous by even his supporters.

Trump faced the wrath of some of his most high-profile and loyal Christian supporters, many of whom have stood by the president through multiple other indiscretions and were unable to contain their righteous fury.
…

But the outrage was not just among high-profile media figures. Users on Truth Social – Trump’s social platform where devoted supporters almost never dissent – have also turned on the president over the image.

Trump clearly realized that this was a step too far and withdrew that image, also claiming that he had thought it showed him as doctor healing the sick, which was absurd. And JD Vance, brown nosing as usual, said he thought that Trump had posted it as joke and only withdraw it because people did not understand his humor.

What I don’t understand is how the Trump-as-Jesus meme ever got created, let alone posted by him. Trump obviously does not, and likely cannot, create these AI images himself. It had to have been done by members of his communications team and overseen by his advisors. Did no one have the temerity to tell him that this was a really terrible idea by any measure, that while harshly criticizing the pope is bad enough, to portray himself as Jesus was bound to create a huge negative reaction from not only Catholics but also his evangelical Christian base? Or did they do so and he simply overrode them, confident in the god-like infallibility of his own judgment?

It has now become routine to speculate after each Trump absurdity that it may be meant as a distraction from something else. But there comes a point when the distractions, if that its what they are meant to be, become seen by even ordinary people as evidence of a deeply disturbed person, and then more such ‘distractions’ stop being seen as such and simply add to the weight of evidence.

Jon Stewart was in brutally fine form commenting on recent events.