Donald Trump on Saturday promoted a controversial Baptist pastor’s claim that he has a better grasp on the Bible than Pope Leo XIV just days after Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with the pontiff to try and cool U.S.-Vatican tensions. (Watch the clip below.)
“The great irony is it looks like President Trump has a better understanding of what the Bible teaches about the role of government than the pope has,” said the evangelical Christian leader in a Fox News clip shared by the president on Truth Social. “And I’m glad the president hasn’t backed down at all.”
Jeffress, a Trump supporter who has referred to evangelicals that don’t back the president as “spineless morons,” began his Fox News appearance by describing the first U.S.-born pontiff as a “good man” that’s “sincere in his faith” before adding an asterisk.
“But he is sincerely wrong when it comes to Iran,” said Jeffries, a reference to the pope’s criticism of the Iran war, which has fueled the president’s attacks toward the pontiff in recent weeks.
Jeffress, who once claimed that Roman Catholicism is influenced by Satan, went on to preach that the pope “ought to know” that “the role of the church is to point people to faith in Jesus Christ but the role of government is to protect citizens from evildoers, according to Romans 13.”
The pastor previously cited the New Testament chapter in 2017 when he argued on Fox News that the Bible allowed Trump to use “force to topple evil,” granting him the ability to execute an assassination or start a war with North Korea.
Jeffress proceeded to point to a White House meeting with Trump and other faith leaders after the president launched strikes on Iran. He claimed Trump said he had “no choice” but to attack the country.
“I thanked him then for having the courage to fulfill his God-given responsibility to protect our nation,” he said.
Rubio’s meeting at the Vatican on Thursday was set to the tune of the president’s feud with Leo over his criticism regarding the Iran war in which he’s accused the pope him of wanting the country to have nuclear weapons in recent weeks.
Rubio told reporters in Rome that the closed-door meeting was “productive” and “very cordial” in nature. The secretary of state, when asked if he’d advise Trump to hit pause on his attacks, said the president “will always speak clearly about how he feels about the U.S. and U.S. policy.”