The White House has defended President Donald Trump's war in Iran after Pope Leo XIV condemned leaders who 'wage war', with Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt insisting there was 'nothing wrong' with calling on Americans to pray for troops.
Speaking at a Monday afternoon briefing in Washington, Leavitt was pressed on the Pope's remarks about the month‑long conflict, which has killed 13 US service members, wounded more than 300 others and rattled global oil markets, and was asked directly whether the Vatican's warning applied to President Trump.
The news came after Pope Leo appeared to denounce the US‑Israeli campaign against Iran in a Sunday address, declaring that 'God does not listen to the prayer of those who wage war'.
White House Backs Trump And Sidesteps Pope Leo's Rebuke
When reporters invited Karoline Leavitt to respond to Pope Leo's intervention, she did not directly engage with the core of his criticism. Instead, she framed the issue as one of faith and tradition rather than of moral responsibility for launching a war.
'Our nation was a nation founded 250 years ago almost on Judeo‑Christian values. And we have seen presidents, the leaders of the department of war, and our troops go to prayer during the most turbulent times in our nation's history,' Leavitt said.
Leavitt framed the prayer call as standard practice. 'I don't think there is anything wrong with our military leaders or with the president calling on the American people to pray for our service members overseas,' she added.
She suggested that US troops were grateful for the prayers being offered on their behalf.
Pope Leo's Appeal To 'Renounce Weapons'
Pope Leo's comments were not limited to a single line about prayer. In early March, a few weeks after Washington launched joint operations with Israel against Iran, he used the Vatican's monthly video message to urge nations to 'renounce weapons and choose the path of dialogue and diplomacy'.
His words, delivered as part of a regular series that usually focuses on prayer intentions, called on leaders in Washington, Tel Aviv and Tehran to 'abandon projects of death, halt the arms race and place the lives of the most vulnerable at the centre'.
'May the nuclear threat never again dictate the future of humanity,' the Pope added in the video.
The Vatican did not name Trump personally. The United States and Israel had only recently initiated strikes in the region, and international criticism of the campaign had been growing since the first wave of attacks in late February.
Trump's Shifting Justifications For The Iran War
According to the reporting cited, President Trump has offered several overlapping explanations.
He has argued that the campaign is necessary to prevent Iran's Islamic regime from building a nuclear weapon, casting the war as a grim but essential step to head off a future catastrophe. Yet that sits awkwardly with his earlier boasts that US airstrikes in June had "obliterated" Tehran's nuclear capabilities.
After the initial strikes in the current conflict, Trump again altered his emphasis, claiming Iran was only months away from acquiring a nuclear device, a claim that raised immediate questions about the quality of the intelligence he was relying on.
The tension became harder to ignore when the president's own National Counterterrorism Center Director resigned several weeks after Pope Leo's message. The official cited a report concluding that Iran posed no imminent threat to the United States.
European allies have also expressed scepticism that Iran can be bombed or sanctioned into surrendering its nuclear ambitions. From their perspective, the idea that the regime will simply relinquish its capabilities under pressure looks more like wishful thinking than strategy.
Pope Leo XIV's plea to 'halt the arms race and centre the vulnerable' hit as Iran war support waned. Energy markets have buckled, fuel costs soared and nuclear fears loom in a region prone to missteps with global fallout.
The White House digs in. Leavitt's claim that there is 'nothing wrong' with wartime prayer reveals a team more focused on its own righteousness than answering the pope's point that war-makers cannot just pray their way clean. No word yet from Trump or his inner circle on the pope's 'projects of death' line.
