The Dictatorship
The president’s feud with Pope Leo exposes Trump’s ignorance of faith
ByMichael Steele
President Donald Trump’s feud with Pope Leo XIV has only escalated since the president posted an AI-generated image of himself Sunday night dressed like a Christlike healer, laying hands on the forehead of a sick man as light pours from his fingers. The image was removed after backlash, but the message seemed clear: In Trump’s imagination, he is not just president — he’s the savior.
Asked about it, Trump insisted he thought it showed him “as a doctor.” Right. Because apparently doctors now make house calls dressed like Jesus.
The Catholic Church does not exist to flatter political leaders. It exists to challenge them.
Let’s be serious for a moment. Trump’s feud with the pope is not just another political spat. On one side is a president who treats faith like a loyalty test. On the other is the spiritual leader of a two thousand year old moral tradition.
And it’s a tradition I know personally. Before I was lieutenant governor of Maryland or chair of the Republican National Committee, I was an Augustinian seminarian at Villanova, the same seminary Pope Leo attended. So I know something about the church Trump seems to think he can bully into silence.
The Catholic Church does not exist to flatter political leaders. It exists to challenge them. This has been particularly true since the papacies of Benedict XV who made moral appeals and efforts at mediation during WWI; or Pope Pius XII who pressed the Vatican’s neutrality during WWII while engaging in quiet diplomacy creating rescue networks across Europe. That role has not changed in the modern era as we have witnessed popes from John Paul II to Leo XIV confronting power on war, poverty and human dignity, because the Gospel demands it.
So when Trump complains that the pope shouldn’t criticize himwhat he’s really revealing is a basic delusion: He believes everyone must see the world exactly the way he does. But the church does not bend to presidents. History shows the danger when religious institutions cozy up to political power, including the tragic failures of some churches in Nazi Germany, which is precisely why the Catholic Church’s moral voice must remain independent of it.
It’s possible there’s something else at play here: jealousy. Trump cannot stand that there exists an American on the world stage more popular than he is. And the pope, inconveniently, is exactly that. The idea that millions look to a humble priest in a white cassock instead of a gold-plated strongman could conceivably be unbearable for Trump. As the world confronts economic, political and cultural stresses exacerbated by wars in Africa, Ukraine and now the Middle East, Catholic teaching calls all of us to welcome migrants, lift up the poor and reject cruelty. As the pope said very clearly, “Enough of the idolatry of self and money! Enough of the display of power! Enough of war!”
Trump’s politics misread history and revolve around his push for mass deportations, economic plunder and war.
Leo, to his credit, did not blink. Speaking aboard the papal plane Monday as he traveled to Africa, he said plainly he has no fear of speaking out. The church, he reminded the world, is not in the business of politics as Trump understands it. Its mission is to proclaim the Gospel and to be a peacemaker. In other words, the pope leaned into something simple and radical: love thy neighbor. Care for the vulnerable. Seek peace instead of war. Whether you are Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist or no faith at all, those principles, that moral code, speak to our shared humanity.
Trump treats everything, especially politics, like a loyalty test. It is not enough for members of his party or Cabinet to agree with him; they must submit.
Trump, meanwhile, keeps turning religion into a personal branding exercise. We have seen the pattern before: the staged photo outside St. John’s Church holding a Bible after protesters were cleared, the reposted images of Jesus supposedly sitting beside him in court. Trump treats religion as a prop, something he pulls out when it serves his personal or political interests.
Trump treats everything, especially politics, like a loyalty test. It is not enough for members of his party or Cabinet to agree with him; they must submit. And as we recently learned, he expects the same from the church. What Trump wants is a pope who falls in line.
Even Christ never demanded that kind of loyalty.
And that, more than any AI image or deleted social media post, is the real problem: Trump does not just misunderstand this pope as the Vicar of Christ, he misunderstands the danger of state overreach into spiritual domains — not to mention the history, power and the nature of the Catholic Church itself.
Michael Steele
Michael Steele is a co-host of “The Weeknight,” which airs Monday through Friday at 7 p.m. ET on MS NOW. He is a former lieutenant governor of Maryland and a former chairman of the Republican National Committee.
The Dictatorship
Trump says US will blockade Iran in the Strait of Hormuz and charge ships for safe passage
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The U.S. launched strikes on Iran early Tuesday morning, hours after President Donald Trump said Washington is “reinstating” a blockade on Iran in the Strait of Hormuz. Trump separately suggested the United States will charge other ships for safe passage, upending hundreds of years of American policy supporting freedom of navigation across the globe.
Iran responded with attacks targeting Bahrain, Jordan and two tankers associated with the United Arab Emirates traveling through the strait, killing one mariner and wounding eight others. The Emirates threatened to retaliate against Iran, potentially drawing the nation home to Abu Dhabi and Dubai back into fighting with Tehran.
The attacks come as Iran and the U.S. both vie for control of the strait through which a fifth of all traded crude oil and natural gas once passed in peacetime. The price of benchmark Brent crude oil rose to a one-month high of over $84 in trading early Tuesday, still well below the nearly $120 reached at the height of the war but threatening to make costs everywhere higher.
Trump insists strait will be open
The U.S. military’s Central Command said it struck areas around Abu Musa, Bandar Abbas, Bushehr, Chahbahar, Jask and Konarak, targeting Iranian “coastal defense systems, missile and drone sites and maritime capabilities.” Iran acknowledged strikes around those areas, but provided no immediate casualty or damage assessments.
“These strikes will continue imposing a heavy cost on Iranian forces and degrade their ability to attack innocent civilians and commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz,” the U.S. military said.
Moments after the military announced the new strikes, Trump called it “another major attack.”
“We’re hitting them very hard. And it’ll continue, and we’ll see what happens,” he told reporters in the Oval Office. “We’re knocking out all of their offensive capability and we’re controlling the straits. We’re putting the blockade back.”
Trump also provided new details on his administration doing an about-face and suggesting it will charge tolls for ships going through the strait, after previously suggesting that it wouldn’t.
“We’re protecting a very rich portion of the world,” he said. “We’re spending money. And so, what we’ve done is, we are going to be reimbursed for protection.”
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It’s a change in U.S. policy that, until now, said the strait should remain open to all without tolls — as it was before the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28. Any attempt by the U.S. or Iran to charge fees would violate global norms on freedom of navigation and raise tensions, likely causing further economic disruption far beyond the region.
The U.S. Navy has fought for freedom of navigation on the seas since the Barbary Wars and the War of 1812.
Attacks resume across the Mideast
The United Arab Emirates’ Defense Ministry said early Tuesday that Iran attacked two tankers in the Strait of Hormuz, killing one mariner and wounding eight others.
The Emirati Defense Ministry said Iran launched two cruise missiles at the tankers Mombasa and Al Bahiyah.
The attacks set both tankers ablaze, though the fires were extinguished.
Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard claimed the attack on the tankers, saying the vessels “ignored repeated warnings.”
“They chose to pass through a minefield and were subsequently targeted and disabled,” the Guard said.
Bahrain also came under renewed attack early Tuesday morning as Iran retaliated over the latest round of U.S. airstrikes. Bahrain sounded its missile alert sirens twice, urging the public to seek shelter. There was no word on any damage or casualties from the attack.
The Emirati Defense Ministry said the attack on the tankers killed one Indian national and wounded six Indians and two Ukrainians.
“The UAE reserves its full right to respond to this escalation and to take all necessary measures to protect its territory, its citizens and residents,” the Defense Ministry added.
The Emirates used similar language before launching attacks against Iran during the war. Fighter jets could be heard overheard Tuesday morning in Dubai.
The U.S. Embassy in Abu Dhabi and the U.S. Consulate in Dubai alerted Americans early Tuesday that consular appointments had been canceled through Wednesday “due to the regional security situation.”
Jordan’s military said it intercepted four missiles from Iran, according to a statement carried by the kingdom’s state-run Petra news agency. Jordan hosts U.S. forces and has come under attack by Tehran in recent days.
Trump says Iran failed a test
Earlier Monday, Trump told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt that the agreement reached last month was “built to test” Iran, adding that “when you’re dealing with sleazebags (agreements) don’t mean much.”
“They didn’t honor the test,” the president said.
Iran asserts it has the right to manage traffic through the strait and potentially charge fees in accordance with the interim peace deal. The U.S. has disputed that.
The American military and the United Nations’ International Maritime Organization have tried to establish a route through the strait along the coast of Oman that would be outside of Iranian control. Iran has attacked ships using that route, saying the U.S. is violating the interim peace deal. The U.S. has attacked Iran in response, drawing Iranian attacks on U.S.-allied Arab states.
Exchanges of fire in recent days had already cast further doubt on the interim peace deal. Washington had lifted a blockade it imposed in mid-April as part of that deal, which also called for the strait to be fully reopened.
“We are reinstating the THE IRANIAN BLOCKADE,” Trump said on social media. “All other countries will have fair and open use of the Strait.”
The president said the U.S. would be “reimbursed” by 20% of the value of cargo to help cover “any and all costs necessary to do the job of providing safety and security.”
The U.S. military said it will resume its blockade of Iranian ports at midnight local Wednesday in Dubai.
___
Boak, Weissert and Toropin reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Mae Anderson in New York, Christopher Weber in Los Angeles, Kareem Chehayeb in Beirut, Munir Ahmed in Islamabad and Stella Martany in Irbil, Iraq, contributed to this report.
Writer E. Jean Carroll finally has the $5 million — plus interest — that a jury ordered President Donald Trump to pay her in damages in one of her two cases against him, after Trump fought the payout for years.
Court records posted Tuesday show a transfer of $5,625,005.48 to Carroll’s legal team took place the day before.
Carroll received the money more than three years after a jury found that the president was liable for sexually abusing her in a Manhattan department store in 1996, and then for defaming her on social media. Trump has repeatedly appealed the judgment to no avail — including petitioning the Supreme Court multiple times — and last week launched a last-ditch attempt to block her from getting the money.
Last Tuesday, his legal team filed a briefrequesting that the disbursement of the damages be halted, pointing to his pending request for the Supreme Court to reconsider its refusal to hear his appeal.
A federal judge nevertheless ordered Wednesday that Carroll be paid, prompting a swift appeal from Trump and a motion for an emergency administrative stay on the disbursement of the funds.
That request was denied.
“Three years ago, a unanimous nine-person jury found President Trump liable for sexually assaulting and defaming E. Jean Carroll. Today, we are pleased to report that she has received the damages payment the jury awarded her as a result of that verdict,” said Carroll’s lead attorney, Roberta Kaplan.
Clarissa-Jan Lim is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW. She was previously a senior reporter and editor at BuzzFeed News.
Lisa Rubin is MS NOW’s senior legal reporter and a former litigator.
To the extent that the United States and Iran had a ceasefire deal in place to end the deadly, destabilizing war, that agreement has unraveled. Donald Trump has declared the ceasefire “over”; both countries have renewed their military strikes; and the American president is positioning the U.S. as a mercenary forcewith plans to charge tolls to pay for guarding the Strait of Hormuz.
As for the deal the Trump administration negotiated with Iran, formally known as a memorandum of understanding, or MOU, conservative host Hugh Hewitt asked the president whether the framework was “built to fall apart.” The Republican responded with an answer he hadn’t shared previously.
“It was built to test. It was a test,” Trump replied. “We didn’t know. It didn’t, look, memorandum of understanding, when you’re dealing with sleazebags, don’t mean much. And they don’t mean much when you’re dealing with honorable people, too, because it’s memorandum of understanding. It doesn’t mean much.”
The president went on to say that Iran “didn’t honor the test,” before suggesting that he had predicted from the outset that officials in Tehran would cause the agreement to collapse through noncompliance. “I said, ‘Watch, I guarantee. Watch.’ And they never, they never followed it.”
The apparent point of the on-air comments wasn’t merely to blame Iran for the unravelling deal, it was also to convey the suggestion that Trump knew all along Iran would cause the framework to collapse.
The trouble is, very recent history proves otherwise.
It was exactly one month ago when the president published a statement to his social media platform, announcing, “The Deal with the Islamic Republic of Iran is now complete. Congratulations to all!” About an hour later, seemingly eager to pat himself on the back, he added“This Great Deal will bring Peace and Security to the whole Region. Many presidents have tried to make Peace with Iran, and all have failed before me. The Leaders of the Region have, for the first time, found a President who can help them achieve real Peace.”
In the days that followed, not only did Trump continue to celebrate his alleged triumph, but the White House invested an enormous amount of time and effort in touting the deal, all while Vice President JD Vance went on a media tour, doing his best to defend the policy on the merits.
There was nothing about this being a “test.” Not a word was uttered about the idea that the deal “doesn’t mean much.”
If the president expects his post hoc rationalization of this failure to persuade anyone, he’s probably going to be disappointed.
Steve Benen is a producer for “The Rachel Maddow Show,” the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He’s also the bestselling author of “Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans’ War on the Recent Past.”
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