President Trump Attacks Pope Francis on Social Media

President Donald Trump took aim at Pope Francis on Sunday on social media, claiming that the first American pope should “stop catering to the demands of the radical left.”

This unprecedented attack on the global leader of the Catholic Church escalated a feud that began over the conflict in Iran.

“Pope Francis is weak on crime and disastrous on foreign policy,” the president wrote on social media.

Shortly after, he spoke to reporters at Andrews Air Force Base, where he landed on Air Force One.

“I don’t think he’s doing a very good job,” Donald Trump said. “I’m not a fan of Pope Francis.”

Trump’s message followed Pope Francis’s denunciation over the weekend of the “illusion of omnipotence” fueling the war between the United States and Israel in Iran, and his call for political leaders to cease hostilities and negotiate peace.

The pope led a prayer vigil at St. Peter’s Basilica on the same day the United States and Iran began face-to-face negotiations in Pakistan under a fragile ceasefire.

While the pope did not mention the United States or Donald Trump by name in his prayer, his tone and message appeared to be directed at Trump and American leaders who have boasted about U.S. military superiority and justified war in religious terms.