For many Catholic supporters of President Donald Trump, it’s been a rocky April.
Two days after Easter Sunday, the president threatened Iran with annihilation. Days later, Trump dissed Pope Leo XIV as “WEAK on Crime” – on the same day he posted an inflammatory image depicting himself as Jesus on social media.
With the Trump administration trading barbs with the Vatican in what’s become the most contentious relationship between a secular leader and the papacy since medieval times, some suggest the moment could be a flashpoint for Catholic conservatives torn between political and religious allegiances.
“Conservative Catholics who have supported Trump may now feel the need to decide between him and the pope,” said Landon Schnabel, an associate professor of sociology at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.
The clash has escalated beyond mere president versus pontiff: Some of Trump’s Catholic allies, notably Vice President JD Vance, have entered the fray, while the nation’s Catholic bishops have rallied around the pope, the entire affair amplified via social media .
“It’s almost like you can see this debate play out between two titans in real time,” said Frank Lacopo, an assistant professor of history at Southeast Missouri State University in Cape Girardeau. “This is unprecedented in American history.”
Nearly 60% of Catholics backed Trump in the 2024 election, but Mathew Schmalz, founding editor of the Journal of Global Catholicism, said up to a third of that support may have since withered as the president and the pope have clashed over U.S. deportation policies and the Iran war. The spat threatens to scuttle a key constituency heading into the 2026 midterms.
“Obviously Catholics in America are an important political constituency and regardless of whether they’re Republican or Democrat, presidents have been careful not to alienate them,” he said. “Trump is really charting out new political territory.”
Nicholas Hayes-Mota, a social ethicist and public theologian at Santa Clara University in California, said the cumulative effects of the last two weeks, capped by Trump’s since-deleted AI image on Truth Social, has already pushed some to break with the president.
“For some it’s clearly a bridge too far,” Hayes-Mota said.
Though the president dubiously attempted to explain it away, the Trump-as-Jesus image drew sharp rebuke from conservative Catholics such as podcaster Michael Knowles, former Fox News host Megyn Kelly and CatholicVote.org, a group founded by Trump’s Ambassador to the Holy See.
Schnabel, of Cornell, said for many religious Americans, faith leads while politics follows. In other words, their beliefs and values shape their political positions.
But when the president posts an image of himself as Christ, he said, “he asks believers to start with political loyalty and backfill the theology.” That creates tension between religious conviction and political allegiance.
“When people hold two conflicting commitments,” Schnabel said, “something has to give.”
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