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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Comment
Simon Tisdall

Who can tame Trump? An unlikely candidate is emerging: the Catholic church

Pope Leo XIV with US secretary of state Marco Rubio (left) and US vice-president JD Vance in the Vatican in May 2025.
Pope Leo XIV with US secretary of state Marco Rubio (left) and US vice-president JD Vance in the Vatican in May 2025. Photograph: Simone Risoluti/VATICAN MEDIA/AFP/Getty Images

The supreme court can’t do it – it’s packed with conservatives who owe him their jobs. Congress won’t do it – Republicans slavishly follow his orders, Democrats are ill-led and divided. For today’s White House, the concept of constitutional limits on executive power is a quaint relic. The news media, or sections of it, does its best amid constant legal threats. But, too often, they pay him off. Brave reporters who insist on asking awkward questions are insulted or silenced: “Quiet, piggy.”

So who will tame Donald Trump? Who will halt his rolling constitutional coup – his ongoing evisceration of US democracy, civil rights, living standards, global reputation and moral integrity? Voters may try to indirectly rein him back in next November’s midterms (as they did recently in New York and elsewhere). But those elections are a year away. The emergency is today.

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