The TOI Correspondent from Washington: Set aside the skirmishes in the Strait of Hormuz for the moment. The Trump White House has officially opened a second war front, with salvoes against the Vatican in the midst of a war on Iran. The papacy isn’t holding back either. In a scorching smackdown of the MAGA ministry, Pope Leo, lectured by the administration about theology, returned fire with more implicit criticism of the Trump wars, saying, “Woe to those who manipulate religion and the very name of God for their own military, economic, and political gain, dragging that which is sacred into darkness and filth.”
The papal rebuke came amid a surreal communications spiral triggered by President Trump’s latest viral imagery on Wednesday depicting him alongside Jesus Christ. The image followed an earlier visual showing Trump as a healing savior, a visual that is being memed, parodied, satirized – and now denied by the MAGA boss.
