{"id":3197,"date":"2026-04-14T07:02:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T07:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tona.today\/?p=3197"},"modified":"2026-04-14T01:33:51","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T01:33:51","slug":"italian-pm-condemns-ally-trump-over-unacceptable-pope-criticism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tona.today\/?p=3197","title":{"rendered":"Italian PM condemns ally Trump over &#8216;unacceptable&#8217; Pope criticism"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Donald Trump&#8217;s remarks about Pope Leo XIV were &#8220;unacceptable&#8221;, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The US president accused the pontiff of being &#8220;WEAK on Crime and terrible for Foreign Policy&#8221; in a long Truth Social post, later telling reporters he was &#8220;not a big fan&#8221;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"\u201cGolden\u201d Official Lyric Video | KPop Demon Hunters | Sony Animation\" width=\"980\" height=\"551\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/yebNIHKAC4A?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;The Pope is the head of the Catholic Church, and it is right and normal for him to call for peace and to condemn every form of war,&#8221; Meloni said in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Meloni, who is a Catholic and heads a right-wing coalition government,\u00a0is a close ally of Trump\u00a0and had so far been reluctant to condemn the US president&#8217;s harsh criticism of Pope Leo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Italian opposition parties have criticised Meloni for failing to speak out promptly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Her coalition partner Matteo Salvini, the leader of the populist League party, said that &#8220;attacking the Pope&#8230; doesn&#8217;t seem like a useful or intelligent thing to do.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After Trump&#8217;s remarks, the Pope told reporters en route to Algeria that he did not want to get into a debate with Trump but would continue to promote peace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Pope Leo has said he has &#8220;no fear&#8221; of the Trump administration and will continue to speak out against war after the US president launched an unusual and scathing attack over his stance on the Iran conflict.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He has been a staunch critic of the Iran war, calling Trump&#8217;s threat to destroy Iranian civilisation &#8220;unacceptable&#8221; and\u00a0calling for him to find an &#8220;off-ramp&#8221; to end the conflict.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On Monday, Trump doubled down on his criticism, saying he would not apologise to the &#8220;very weak&#8221; Pope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In general, it is rare for a Pope to directly address statements by world leaders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There are more than 70 million Catholics in the US, about 20% of the population. They include Trump&#8217;s Vice-President JD Vance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Trump&#8217;s comments came as the pontiff embarked on an 11-day trip to Africa, his second major foreign trip since being elected last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The US president wrote in Sunday&#8217;s post that the Pope &#8220;should get his act together&#8221; and said he was &#8220;weak on nuclear weapons&#8221;, apparently referring to Tehran&#8217;s attempts to become a nuclear power, cited as one of the reasons for the US and Israel going to war with Iran. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He also suggested that the pontiff was elected &#8220;because he was American, and they thought that would be the best way to deal with President Donald J Trump&#8221;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;If I wasn&#8217;t in the White House, Leo wouldn&#8217;t be in the Vatican.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Asked by reporters to explain the post, he later said: &#8220;I don&#8217;t think he&#8217;s doing a very good job, he likes crime, I guess.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Trump added: &#8220;He&#8217;s a very liberal person, and he&#8217;s a man who doesn&#8217;t believe in stopping crime, he&#8217;s a man who doesn&#8217;t believe we should be toying with a country that wants a nuclear weapon so they can blow up the world.&#8221; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In response, the Pope told reporters on board his plane to Algiers that he did not see his role as that of a politician but as one of spreading the message of peace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;I have no fear of the Trump administration, or speaking out loudly of the message of the gospel, which is what I believe I am here to do, what the Church is here to do,&#8221; he told reporters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t want to get into a debate with [Trump],&#8221; he added. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/articles\/cp841y07w5xo\">(BBC)<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Donald Trump&#8217;s remarks about Pope Leo XIV were &#8220;unacceptable&#8221;, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has said. The US president accused the pontiff of being &#8220;WEAK on Crime and terrible for Foreign Policy&#8221; in a long Truth Social post, later telling reporters he was &#8220;not a big fan&#8221;. &#8220;The Pope is the head of the Catholic [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3198,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[2214,55,3350,433,131,2210,57],"class_list":["post-3197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-foreign","tag-catholic-church","tag-donald-trump","tag-giorgia-meloni","tag-iran","tag-italy","tag-pope-leo-xiv","tag-united-states"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Italian PM condemns ally Trump over &#039;unacceptable&#039; Pope criticism - Tona Today<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Donald Trump&#039;s remarks about Pope Leo XIV were &quot;unacceptable&quot;, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has said.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/tona.today\/?p=3197\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Italian PM condemns ally Trump over &#039;unacceptable&#039; Pope criticism - Tona Today\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Donald Trump&#039;s remarks about Pope Leo XIV were &quot;unacceptable&quot;, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has said.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/tona.today\/?p=3197\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Tona Today\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-04-14T07:02:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/tona.today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Giorgio-Meloni.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"664\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"443\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Tona.Today\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Tona.Today\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tona.today\\\/?p=3197#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tona.today\\\/?p=3197\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Tona.Today\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tona.today\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/76420356652545dc8fd331a11f052477\"},\"headline\":\"Italian PM condemns ally Trump over &#8216;unacceptable&#8217; Pope criticism\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-04-14T07:02:00+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tona.today\\\/?p=3197\"},\"wordCount\":607,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tona.today\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tona.today\\\/?p=3197#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tona.today\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/Giorgio-Meloni.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Catholic Church\",\"Donald Trump\",\"Giorgia Meloni\",\"Iran\",\"Italy\",\"Pope Leo XIV\",\"United States\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Foreign\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/tona.today\\\/?p=3197#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tona.today\\\/?p=3197\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tona.today\\\/?p=3197\",\"name\":\"Italian PM condemns ally Trump over 'unacceptable' Pope criticism - Tona Today\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tona.today\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tona.today\\\/?p=3197#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tona.today\\\/?p=3197#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tona.today\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/Giorgio-Meloni.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-04-14T07:02:00+00:00\",\"description\":\"Donald Trump's remarks about Pope Leo XIV were \\\"unacceptable\\\", Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has said.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tona.today\\\/?p=3197#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/tona.today\\\/?p=3197\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tona.today\\\/?p=3197#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tona.today\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/Giorgio-Meloni.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tona.today\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/Giorgio-Meloni.jpg\",\"width\":664,\"height\":443,\"caption\":\"FILE PHOTO: Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni speaks during a news conference to present her government's first budget in Rome, Italy, November 22, 2022. REUTERS\\\/Remo Casilli\\\/File Photo\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tona.today\\\/?p=3197#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tona.today\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Italian PM condemns ally Trump over &#8216;unacceptable&#8217; Pope criticism\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tona.today\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tona.today\\\/\",\"name\":\"Tona Today\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tona.today\\\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tona.today\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tona.today\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Tona Today\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tona.today\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tona.today\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tona.today\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/05\\\/cropped-cropped-Your-paragraph-text-1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tona.today\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/05\\\/cropped-cropped-Your-paragraph-text-1.jpg\",\"width\":500,\"height\":117,\"caption\":\"Tona Today\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tona.today\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tona.today\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/76420356652545dc8fd331a11f052477\",\"name\":\"Tona.Today\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/caa7d2f1284ad52494d77a04b46fce0d6bf1fe423c5ef2a52e1d3c44ff2fad10?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/caa7d2f1284ad52494d77a04b46fce0d6bf1fe423c5ef2a52e1d3c44ff2fad10?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/caa7d2f1284ad52494d77a04b46fce0d6bf1fe423c5ef2a52e1d3c44ff2fad10?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Tona.Today\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/tona.today\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tona.today\\\/?author=2\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Italian PM condemns ally Trump over 'unacceptable' Pope criticism - Tona Today","description":"Donald Trump's remarks about Pope Leo XIV were \"unacceptable\", Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has said.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/tona.today\/?p=3197","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Italian PM condemns ally Trump over 'unacceptable' Pope criticism - Tona Today","og_description":"Donald Trump's remarks about Pope Leo XIV were \"unacceptable\", Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has said.","og_url":"https:\/\/tona.today\/?p=3197","og_site_name":"Tona Today","article_published_time":"2026-04-14T07:02:00+00:00","og_image":[{"width":664,"height":443,"url":"https:\/\/tona.today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Giorgio-Meloni.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Tona.Today","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Tona.Today","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/tona.today\/?p=3197#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/tona.today\/?p=3197"},"author":{"name":"Tona.Today","@id":"https:\/\/tona.today\/#\/schema\/person\/76420356652545dc8fd331a11f052477"},"headline":"Italian PM condemns ally Trump over &#8216;unacceptable&#8217; Pope criticism","datePublished":"2026-04-14T07:02:00+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/tona.today\/?p=3197"},"wordCount":607,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/tona.today\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/tona.today\/?p=3197#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/tona.today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Giorgio-Meloni.jpg","keywords":["Catholic Church","Donald Trump","Giorgia Meloni","Iran","Italy","Pope Leo XIV","United States"],"articleSection":["Foreign"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/tona.today\/?p=3197#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/tona.today\/?p=3197","url":"https:\/\/tona.today\/?p=3197","name":"Italian PM condemns ally Trump over 'unacceptable' Pope criticism - Tona Today","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/tona.today\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/tona.today\/?p=3197#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/tona.today\/?p=3197#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/tona.today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Giorgio-Meloni.jpg","datePublished":"2026-04-14T07:02:00+00:00","description":"Donald Trump's remarks about Pope Leo XIV were \"unacceptable\", Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has said.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/tona.today\/?p=3197#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/tona.today\/?p=3197"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/tona.today\/?p=3197#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/tona.today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Giorgio-Meloni.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/tona.today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Giorgio-Meloni.jpg","width":664,"height":443,"caption":"FILE PHOTO: Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni speaks during a news conference to present her government's first budget in Rome, Italy, November 22, 2022. REUTERS\/Remo Casilli\/File Photo"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/tona.today\/?p=3197#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/tona.today\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Italian PM condemns ally Trump over &#8216;unacceptable&#8217; Pope criticism"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/tona.today\/#website","url":"https:\/\/tona.today\/","name":"Tona Today","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/tona.today\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/tona.today\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/tona.today\/#organization","name":"Tona Today","url":"https:\/\/tona.today\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/tona.today\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/tona.today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/cropped-cropped-Your-paragraph-text-1.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/tona.today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/cropped-cropped-Your-paragraph-text-1.jpg","width":500,"height":117,"caption":"Tona Today"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/tona.today\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/tona.today\/#\/schema\/person\/76420356652545dc8fd331a11f052477","name":"Tona.Today","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/caa7d2f1284ad52494d77a04b46fce0d6bf1fe423c5ef2a52e1d3c44ff2fad10?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/caa7d2f1284ad52494d77a04b46fce0d6bf1fe423c5ef2a52e1d3c44ff2fad10?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/caa7d2f1284ad52494d77a04b46fce0d6bf1fe423c5ef2a52e1d3c44ff2fad10?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Tona.Today"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/tona.today"],"url":"https:\/\/tona.today\/?author=2"}]}},"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tona.today\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tona.today\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tona.today\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tona.today\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tona.today\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3197"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tona.today\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3197\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3199,"href":"https:\/\/tona.today\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3197\/revisions\/3199"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tona.today\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tona.today\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tona.today\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tona.today\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}