Republicans have largely settled on a two-sided response to elucidate away President Donald Trump’s potentially blasphemous post depicting himself as Jesus, in addition to his feud with Pope Leo XIV over the Iran war.
Trump’s now-deleted publish was ill-advised, they concede. But additionally, the pope ought to keep in his lane.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Thursday trampled throughout these factors — and strengthened that the Trump administration is the facet blurring the strains between theology and politics, virtually demanding a extra direct conflict with the pope.
That conflict seems to be arriving, with Pope Leo more and more sounding an alarm that the Trump administration is misappropriating God’s will.
In an Iran war briefing Thursday, Hegseth likened the media masking the war skeptically to Pharisees who plotted in opposition to Jesus — trying to find an excuse to persecute him at the same time as Jesus carried out a miracle.
“I sat there in church and I thought, our press are just like these Pharisees,” Hegseth stated.
Of course, for the metaphor to work, Trump must be Jesus. And that is now the third time in two weeks the administration has painted such an image. Trump himself posted and later deleted a picture of himself as Jesus, therapeutic a sick man, and earlier this month his religious adviser Paula White-Cain likened Trump to Jesus at a White House Easter occasion.
And regardless of Republicans like Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Vice President JD Vance arguing that the pope ought to follow theology whereas politicians follow politics, the Trump administration seems more and more bent on casting the Iran battle as a holy war blessed by God.
That makes for a clumsy argument: While Pope Leo shouldn’t decide wars, Trump and Hegseth are allowed to evaluate God’s will.
Here’s a short recap (with a tip of the cap to NCS’s Zachary B. Wolf, who has been documenting this for weeks):
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Hegseth has stated the navy strikes are being “carried out under the protection of divine providence.”
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He has quoted a Psalm which says, “Blessed be the Lord, my rock, who trains my hands for war and my fingers for battle.”
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At a Christian service at the Pentagon lately, Hegseth cited imprecatory psalms — mainly, prayers in search of God’s retribution in opposition to foes — which included asking for God to “break the teeth of the ungodly” and for God’s “overwhelming violence of action against those who deserve no mercy.”
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At one other service Wednesday, the Defense secretary recited a vengeful prayer he stated was shared with him that seems to echo a notorious Samuel L. Jackson character’s monologue in “Pulp Fiction.”
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He on Thursday suggestively cited a pair of rescue missions of American airmen as “miracles, you might say.”
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Hegseth beforehand drew parallels between a kind of rescues and Jesus’ resurrection.
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Trump has punctuated his personal remarks by saying, “glory be to GOD.”
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And the president later wagered that God supports the war as a result of “God wants to see people taken care of.”
The pope seems to have observed this development.
Mere minutes after Hegseth’s feedback at the briefing Thursday morning, Pope Leo posted a pointed comment from a speech he had simply delivered in Bamenda, Cameroon.
“Jesus told us blessed are the peacemakers,” the pope stated. “But woe to those who manipulate religion and the very name of God for their own military, economic or political gain — dragging that which is sacred into darkness and filth.”
Indeed, the pope hasn’t been content material simply to criticize the Iran war; he has beforehand warned in opposition to invoking God’s will to justify it.
In his Palm Sunday tackle in late March, he referred to Jesus as somebody “whom no one can use to justify war.”
“God does not bless any conflict,” he added final week. “Anyone who is a disciple of Christ, the Prince of Peace, is never on the side of those who once wielded the sword and today drop bombs.”
The Vatican stated final week that the pope’s feedback weren’t nearly anybody individual. And certainly, there are many examples of individuals waging war whereas claiming to take action on behalf of a god. It’s type of a historic development.
But it’s one which the Trump administration has clearly determined to resurrect in US overseas coverage. And that has arrange a war of wills between the Trump administration and the Catholic Church.
The administration badly needs to pitch this war as a holy one — seemingly seeking to garner extra backing from a broadly skeptical American public, together with lukewarm Trump supporters.
In reality, Hegseth has been talking in such phrases courting again to a guide he printed in 2020 referred to as, “American Crusade.” In that guide, Hegseth approvingly cited a pope having blessed the crusades.
“The pope, the Catholic Church, and European Christians chose to fight — and the crusades were born,” Hegseth wrote. “Pope Urban II urged the faithful to fight the Muslims with his famous battle cry on their lips: ‘Deus vult!,’ or ‘God wills it!’”
(You would possibly bear in mind the controversy over Hegseth’s “Deus vult” tattoo throughout his affirmation course of final 12 months.)
Hegseth concluded the paragraph by lamenting a papacy and a Catholic Church that bears little resemblance to the one from the days of Urban II.
“Europe was twice bailed out by America in world wars,” Hegseth stated, “and the pope today leads interfaith services.”
These days, the pope appears fairly anxious to at the very least partake in a rhetorical combat.
The administration’s resolution to not simply launch a thinly justified war, however to assert to be doing so with the blessings of God, seems to be spurring Leo to weigh in additional forcefully. It’s one factor to go in opposition to God’s will, in spite of everything; it’s one other to take action whereas claiming affirmatively that it is God’s will.
That implies that Republicans who may need hoped this could be a one- or two-day story — and that they may put the pope in his place and transfer on — seem unlikely to get their want.
And it is likely to be time to provide you with a brand new speaking level.