S6 Ep35: Trump Voters Say 'Nope' to the Pope (with Jonathan V. Last)
The Focus Group Podcast
The Bulwark
4.8 • 2.6K Ratings
🗓️ 18 April 2026
⏱️ 72 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Donald Trump and Pope Leo XIV are probably the two most prominent Americans in the world right now, and they're fighting. So we asked American Catholics (including those who voted for Trump) what they thought of their feud, and about Trump's Truth Social Post depicting himself as Jesus. JVL returns to the show with some choice words for some of his fellow Catholics, and discusses the role the Catholic Church has played in American politics more broadly.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | There are a lot of people, even some Catholics, who would be like, what's he talking about saying that war is bad? |
| 0:06.5 | That's, you know, he's so political. |
| 0:09.2 | No, that's literally what they all say. |
| 0:10.9 | Every time there's a war somewhere, the Pope says, this war is bad. |
| 0:19.3 | Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Focus Group podcast. |
| 0:22.5 | I'm Sarah Longwell, publisher of the bulwark. |
| 0:25.0 | And this week, we're talking about the two most important Americans in the world. |
| 0:29.3 | Donald Trump and Pope Leo, X1V, JVL. |
| 0:33.9 | What number is that? |
| 0:35.7 | You just call him Bobby. |
| 0:37.2 | He's one of us. He's one of ours. He's from the south side of Chicago? You just call him Bobby. He's one of us. |
| 0:38.3 | He's one of ours. |
| 0:39.2 | He's from the south side of Chicago. |
| 0:40.5 | You just call him Bobby. |
| 0:42.0 | One of us. |
| 0:43.3 | One of us. |
| 0:44.8 | So we're coming off a week where the president has been in an escalating feud with the Pope |
| 0:49.1 | and even posted an image on Truth Social, portraying himself as Jesus, which was wild. So I wanted to talk to |
| 0:55.7 | some Catholics across the political spectrum about all of that. And my guest host today is my |
| 1:01.5 | best friend and favorite Catholic, Jonathan V. Last, aka JVL, my co-host on The Secret Podcast, |
| 1:08.4 | and The Next Level. What's up, buddy? |
| 1:15.3 | Boy, am I excited for this one because I had been starting to think that things were turning around and that the world might get better. |
... |
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