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Rubio Cornered on Trump’s Pope Attack Ahead of Vatican Visit
May 5, 2026
Posted 3 hours ago by
The Daily Beast/ReutersSecretary of State Marco Rubio denied that his trip to the Vatican this week is an effort to mend fences between the Trump administration and the Catholic Church after Donald Trump’s series of attacks on Pope Leo XIV. Rubio, who is now Catholic, is headed to Rome starting Wednesday for the trip amid escalating tensions. But just this week, the president continued to lash out at the pope, accusing him of endangering Catholics with his criticism of the Iran War.
“Well, the pope would rather talk about the fact that it’s OK for Iran to have a nuclear weapon, and I don’t think that’s very good,” Trump told Hugh Hewitt in an interview Monday.Read more at The Daily Beast.
The Daily Beast
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