Although Donald Trump is notorious in voicing his personal misgivings across the board, the trifecta of tension between himself, Giorgia Meloni, and Pope Leo XIV is not just a passing disagreement but a conflict about how religion is involved in war.
At its core lies a sharp ideological clash between Trump and the Pope, with Meloni pulled in as a former ally of Trump (he previously called her “a beautiful young woman”), suddenly forced to recalibrate.
“Being allies does not mean there are no red lines, and it certainly does not mean being vassals or subjects”, she has said.
The primary rupture is between Trump and Pope Leo XIV. In recent days, the Pope has taken a firm anti-war stance, particularly regarding the Iran conflict, framing peace as a moral obligation and speaking out against escalation.
Trump, by contrast, has adopted a hardline position, favoring military strength and dismissing the Pope’s interventions as political overreach—with J.D. Vance warning the Pope to be careful. He has criticized the Pope as weak and urged him to stay out of geopolitical matters.
In response, the Vatican insists that questions of war and peace are inherently moral and therefore within its remit—as, in fact, has always been the case.
Though Giorgia Meloni has aligned with Trump in the past, she publicly defended the Pope after Trump’s attacks, calling them unacceptable and affirming the Church’s right to speak on moral issues—it only makes sense from an Italian PM. Regardless, Trump seemed to expect Meloni to show more loyalty to him than to Italy itself, and has interpreted this lack of backing as disloyalty, saying: “I’m shocked at her. I thought she had courage, but I was wrong”. He also said that Iran “would blow up Italy in two minutes if it had the chance”.
Italy, under Meloni, also denied the United States the use of a Sicily airbase for American planes carrying weapons to Iran.
