Trump War on Pope Takes Darker Turn as Mental Decline Alarms Ex-Allies

THE DAILY BLAST with Greg Sargent

The New Republic

News, Politics

4.4 • 800 Ratings

🗓️ 16 April 2026

⏱️ 22 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Donald Trump’s war on Pope Leo is worsening. JD Vance warned that the Pope, who condemned Trump’s war on religious grounds, should “be careful” in his theology. Mike Johnson dismissed the Pope’s criticisms by bizarrely invoking Just War Doctrine, which Trump and Pete Hegseth are serially violating. All this reveals Trump to be demanding that his leading sycophants (even devoutly religious ones) place him above the Pope—and indeed that they recognize no higher allegiance than to the president. Meanwhile, The New York Times has an epic piece on his mental decline, which reports that many ex-allies are sounding the alarm, from Marjorie Taylor Greene to numerous top first-term advisers. We talked to former national security official Olivia Troye, who just announced a run for Congress. She recounts what she witnessed first-hand about Trump’s unfitness, why his enablers are much worse this time around, and how his madness is now impacting Americans’ everyday lives. Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Selling your car can be super simple.
0:02.0	If you choose, we buy any car because they sought out any outstanding finance for you.
0:08.0	Just bring along your final settlement agreement.
0:10.0	If only they could make parallel parking simpler.
0:13.0	To the right bit, mate.
0:15.0	Yeah, back. Back a bit more. A bit more.
0:18.0	Oh, no, too far.
0:21.8	We buy any car.
0:23.0	Selling made simple.
0:27.1	To sell your car today, enter your reg number now at webuanycar.com. This is the Daily Blast from the New Republic, produced and presented by the DSR Network.
0:46.5	I'm your host, Greg Sargent.
1:01.0	Donald Trump's war with Pope Leo has taken an uglier turn. His vice president, J.D. Vance, warned that the Pope should be careful when discussing theology.
1:07.0	And House Speaker Mike Johnson, responding to the whole battle, committed a howler by
1:12.8	bringing up just war doctrine which Trump and Pete Hegeseth are serially violating. It's notable
1:19.6	that this comes as the New York Times just weighed in with an epic piece detailing Trump's
1:24.3	mental decline. In some obvious and not so obvious ways, Trump's battle with
1:30.2	the Pope neatly captures that decline and then some. Olivia Troy, a former national security
1:37.4	official during the first Trump administration, got an unusually close-up look at Trump's
1:42.2	mental unfitness for office. She just announced the run for Congress,
1:46.3	so we're talking to her about all this today. Olivia, thanks for coming on. Hi, Greg. Thanks for
1:51.5	having me. Let's start with House Speaker Mike Johnson. Recently, the Pope criticized Hegset for
1:57.6	praying for maximal violence and killing of the enemy.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The New Republic, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of The New Republic and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.