Trump Casts God As ‘Co-Commander’ In Iran War, Pope Says ‘No’

Washington: Donald Trump did what Donald Trump does best: blurring the lines between fact and fiction to cast himself as God’s chosen instrument, and to proclaim divine sanction for the war in Iran.

Trump’s Truth Social Post – a chaotic AI-generated jumble with a stern-yet-benevolent looking president in a biblical-style robe ‘blessing’ an apparently sick man, with yet more ‘goodness’ radiating out of him – delivered, in his eyes, the ultimate rebuke to Pope Leo XIV and the Catholic Church, who had dared question the US President over the stuck-in-a-loop Iran war.

For, in this narrative and in his world, God has chosen Trump – a role the president leaned into with gusto when he told reporters: “I believe God supports the US in the war against Iran”.

On Truth Social the president taunted the pope – who said God would not listen to prayers from “hands full of blood” – for being a “weak leader” and a “very liberal person”, and claimed he wanted Iran to have a nuclear weapon. The Vatican and the pope have denied this.

Senior administration officials were quick to pick up the cue. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth – a born-again Christian – compared the fighter pilots’ rescue to Jesus Christ’s resurrection and called it an “Easter-style miracle”.

God, the pope, and war for Catholic votes

Papal pushback has been strong and consistent; threats against the Iranian people were called out as “truly unacceptable” and in his Palm Sunday homily, the pope said God “does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them”.

The ‘Trump-as-Jesus’ push – apart from underscoring the White House’s growing use of propaganda videos to frame favourable rhetorics – followed a remarkable broadside on the pope.

This in a country supposed to have a constitutional separation between Church and State.

It also adds religious subtext to an already over-layered war.

Trump’s divine re-branding could not only reshape how allies and adversaries view the fighting, but also how 1.4 billion Catholics around the world – including over 70 million in the US alone, who will vote in November mid-term elections – might see the Iran war if cast as a ‘holy war’.

How those 1.4 billion might see a pope vs president face-off is unclear.

Trump vs the pope, war’s new faultline

The pope’s Easter Sunday message – “let those who have weapons, lay them down” – capped a series of anti-war remarks that included sharp responses to Trump’s shocking threat “wipe out the Iranian civilisation” (cue another biblical reference) if the Strait of Hormuz isn’t re-opened.

Trump was not named but the tone and message left little doubt the remarks were aimed at him and US officials who have boasted of military superiority and justified the war in religious terms.

The rupture came days after the pope’s January State of the World address – the ecclesiastical equivalent of the president’s State of the Union – and calls to reject “a diplomacy based on force, either by individuals or groups of allies”.