Trump rift with Pope Leo "really unprecedented," says Holy Cross religious studies professor

There is an unprecedented rift between President Trump and Pope Leo.

The leader of the Catholic Church and the first pope from the United States said the president doesn't understand the message of the Gospel. Mr. Trump said Pope Leo is "weak on crime" and he told CBS News the pope is "wrong on the issues."

While presidents and popes have disagreed before, religious studies professor Mathew Schmalz of the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts said this moment in history is uncharted territory. 

"Really unprecedented"

"An American president criticizing a pope in the way Donald Trump has is really unprecedented. For presidents, they've always been careful to generally refer to the pope as a moral leader, the conscience of the world and they have been, in times past, very concerned about cultivating Catholics as a political constituency. So, the fact that you have a president of the United States personally criticizing the pope is really something new," Schmalz said.

"Perhaps it's understandable that you could disagree with a pope about policy and the ethical implications of policy. Calling a pope, in this case, Pope Leo, weak or soft on crime is really personalizing things in a way that will have broad ramifications."

Schmalz said a majority of Catholics voted for Trump and of those, "half to a third are really hardcore MAGA." 

"I think for those people, they might even welcome President Trump's comments because they're probably not too enamored with or favorable about Pope Leo," Schmalz said.

"As for the rest, particularly Catholic media, conservative Catholic podcasters, they're going to want to put distance between themselves and this present administration, given its comments. But the person who's really going to be in the hot seat, the one who's really going to have a lot of attention directing toward him is Vice President JD Vance, who is Catholic and has just come out with a memoir about his journey to Catholicism."

Secretary of State Marco Rubio is also Catholic, as are six of the nine Supreme Court justices. Thirty-percent of Congress is Catholic, all according to CBS News senior correspondent Norah O'Donnell.

Trump Jesus image

During his dispute with the pope, Trump posted an image on social media appearing to show himself as a Christ-like figure. He later took it down following backlash from Christian conservatives. The president said he thought the image was "me as a doctor." Vance said the post was a joke.

"President Trump's explanation of the meme and the AI-generated picture is really not credible. If he's going to present himself as a doctor, he doesn't have a stethoscope, he doesn't have doctor's clothing or anything like that. He's obviously presenting himself as a Christ-like figure. That, I think for many Christians, Catholics in particular, is going to be a step too far," Schmalz said.

"It very well may be that the controversy over that particular image that Trump posted will fade. But when you put that image together with what he said about the pope and how he's prosecuting a war, that from a Christian perspective is not just, it's certainly going to cut into his constituency, which has been Evangelical Christians and Catholics."

Pope Leo and politics

When popes have talked about the U.S. in the past, Schmalz said they've "emphasized broader themes" like consumerism, secularization or abortion.

"But in this sense, tying a general criticism about the world situation in terms of war and peace to a specific policy, or an aspect of U.S. foreign policy, that's kind of new," the professor said.

"So, I think Pope Leo, he's not stepping out of his role as pontiff and being a politician, but he is blurring the lines a bit, from his perspective, because these are moral issues that he has to identify clearly for the Catholic faithful."