Feud between Trump and the Pope Leo is much more than just a clash of personalities

Donald Trump’s loud, violent rhetoric smacks of ‘Old Testament’ retribution and infallibility whereas Pope Leo’s restraint and calls for peace are presidential, says Colin Sheridan

Pope Leo XIV arrives to lead a Holy Mass at the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Mongomo. Picture: Alberto Pizzoli / AFP / Getty

THERE was something Old Testament about an American pope and an American president on opposite ends of the day’s great moral argument: To destroy civilisations, or to live and let live? To invade and conquer, or to seek peaceful compromise? To sell division for profit, or give away unity for free? It feels less like geopolitics and more like theology with reality TV stars. And yet here we are.

On one side stands Pope Leo XIV, incumbent in an office that has outlasted empires, revolutions, and more than a few certainties. On the other,  Donald Trump, a man who has always seemed to regard constraints less as guardrails than as insulting suggestions.