His comments came after Trump publicly attacked the pontiff, calling him “weak on crime” and “terrible for foreign policy” after the pope renewed his criticism of war and appealed for peace. The dispute is unusually sharp given that Leo is the first American pope and has quickly emerged as a moral critic of the administration’s hardline foreign policy. The clash has stirred backlash across parts of the Catholic world and added to tensions between Washington and the Vatican at a time of wider geopolitical turmoil.