Trump and Vance Pick a Fight with the Pope
Left, Right & Center
KCRW
3.9 • 5K Ratings
🗓️ 17 April 2026
⏱️ 50 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Pope Leo’s call for peace evidently didn’t sit well with President Trump. He lashed out and called the Pope bad for foreign policy, while Vice President JD Vance lectured the pontiff to be careful when opining on matters of theology.
The president’s next move in Iran is a blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, but is it an effective strategy to force negotiations, or could it backfire and possibly embolden China?
Also, what Viktor Orban’s fall as Hungary’s leader could tell us about the health of far-right movements.
Plus, we chat with Sarah Isgur about her new book that takes us inside the Supreme Court, “Last Branch Standing.”
Producer: Leo Duran
Host: David Greene
Guests:
- Mike Dubke, veteran GOP communications strategist and advisor. He was the White House Comms Director under Donald Trump in 2017 - @MikeDubke
- Mo Elleithee, executive director at Georgetown University's Institute of Politics and Public Service - @MoElleithee
- Sarah Isgur, senior editor at The Dispatch - @whignewtons
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to left, right and center, everybody. I'm David Green. You know, President Trump has been |
| 0:05.7 | struggling with a battle on earth, and he's made things a lot harder now by taking his fights |
| 0:11.5 | to the heavens as well. He has gotten into a very public spat over Iran with none other than the |
| 0:17.6 | Pope. President Trump took interest in something Pope Leo said during |
| 0:21.5 | evening prayers. It was a plea for peace. |
| 0:25.7 | Dear brothers and sisters, they are certainly binding responsibilities that fall to the leaders |
| 0:31.0 | of nations. To them, we cry out, stop. It is that it is time for peace. Sit at the table of dialogue and mediation, not at the |
| 0:41.1 | table where re-armament is planned and deadly actions are decided. You probably noticed |
| 0:46.3 | the Pope did not mention any country or name any world leaders there, and yet. |
| 0:52.1 | Pope Leo said things that are wrong. He was very much against what I'm doing |
| 0:57.5 | with regard to Iran. And you cannot have a nuclear Iran. Pope Leo would not be happy with the end |
| 1:04.1 | result. You have hundreds of millions of people dead. Then, of course, the president posted a now |
| 1:09.0 | deleted AI pick of himself as a Jesus-like figure, |
| 1:12.7 | healing the sick. He's also used social media to go on the attack, saying the Pope is, quote, |
| 1:18.3 | weak on crime and terrible for foreign policy. President Trump also wrote, if I wasn't in the White |
| 1:24.1 | House, Leo wouldn't be in the Vatican. Pope Leo struck a different tone when he |
| 1:29.0 | was speaking to reporters. I do not look at my role as being political, politician. I don't want to |
| 1:35.9 | get into what to make with him. I don't think that the message of the gospel is meant to be abused |
| 1:40.9 | in the way that some people are doing. And I will continue to speak out loudness |
| 1:45.8 | against war. President Trump, I think we can say claimed some level of moral authority when he |
| 1:52.3 | launched the war in Iran. But what does this fight say about his struggles to maintain it? |
| 1:58.2 | Moalethi is here on the left. On the right, we have Mike Dupke back. He's a veteran |
... |
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