President Trump, stop bickering with Pope Leo — you’re losing | Opinion

If President Trump wants to avoid a political disaster for his party in the November midterms, he would be well advised to wave the white flag in his public feud with Pope Leo XIV — he’s getting clobbered.

Before we get into why Trump risks losing key conservative Catholic votes that could cost him control of Congress in November, let’s take a look at the latest polls.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll released April 21 found that about 60% of Americans have a favorable view of Pope Leo, compared with only 36% for ​Trump.

A separate The Economist-YouGov poll asking Americans whether they agree with Trump or Pope Leo on the war in Iran found that 48% side with Leo, while only 28% agree with Trump. An additional 24% responded that they were not sure.

More importantly, among the crucial bloc of independent voters, 50% sided with Pope Leo while only 15% sided with Trump.

Trump called the pope “weak on crime,” “terrible for foreign policy” and suggested he sided with Iran’s dictatorship after the pontiff called for an end to hostilities in the Middle East. The Pope responded saying that he’s not afraid of the Trump administration and later clarified that “it’s not in my interest” to debate the U.S. president.

But the fight between Trump and the Pope drew new headlines after Trump posted an AI-generated image on his social media account portraying himself as Jesus healing a sick man. Facing a public outcry, Trump later deleted the post and said he believed the image showed him as a doctor, but few believed his excuse.

It may be no mystery why Trump is picking a fight with the Pope: it’s in line with Trump’s political strategy of flooding the media zone, making constant news, positioning himself at the center of the public debate and trying to drive the agenda.

Asked about Trump’s latest barbs against Pope Leo, Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski told me that it’s a typical Trump tactic to divert attention from other issues that hurt him politically.

“It’s a distraction,” Wenski told me, referring to Trump’s social media attacks on the pope. “When people are talking about the spat between the pope and the president, they’re not talking about Iran, or about [late convicted sex offender Jeffrey] Epstein or about gasoline prices.”

Wenski added, “’The pope is doing what popes have always done — he’s calling for peace and justice. Nobody should be surprised by this, and neither should the president be.”

If Trump continues lashing out against Leo, the odds are against him. Unlike the times when Trump sparred with the late Pope Francis about immigration or climate change, the U.S. president will have a hard time convincing conservative Catholics that the new pope is a progressive or a leftist.

Pope Leo wears more traditional papal clothing than Francis and is less critical than his predecessor of the Latin Mass — a major issue for some Catholic conservatives. Also, while Francis enraged many conservatives by making conciliatory statements about gays, Pope Leo has tried to stay away from gender-related controversies.

Daniel Alvarez, a professor of religion at Florida International University, told me that Pope Leo has not projected an image of being “either an extreme right-winger nor an extreme leftist.”

“He’s a mathematician, he’s very cerebral and he talks very little,” Alvarez said. “And as it often happens, the less you talk, the more people like you.”

Also, unlike Argentine-born Francis, Leo — the first U.S. pontiff — is a native English speaker, which brings him closer to American Catholics. And he is a smooth talker, which casts him as less confrontational than Trump.

“Trump and his allies would do themselves a favor by stopping this quarrel,” Alvarez concluded. “The pope is winning.”

The U.S. President told reporters on April 16 that he does not see a meeting with Pope Leo XIV as “necessary,” arguing that “I have a right to disagree with the pope.”

But I would bet that the closer we get to the November elections, the more likely Trump will be to seek a meeting and a smiling picture with Pope Leo to pretend that there’s no bad blood between them. Trump is facing an uphill battle to retain his control of Congress at a time when his popularity is tanking.

The Pope faces no such challenge. He can continue speaking out softly for peace and justice, while watching his poll numbers go steadily up.

Don’t miss the program “Oppenheimer Presenta” on Sunday nights on CNN en Español, or on the YouTube channel “Oppenheimer Presenta.” Blog: andresoppenheimer.com