An apparent Feud between a sitting U.S. president and the current pope is not “particularly newsworthy.”
That’s according to Vice President JD Vance, who spoke on Fox News late Monday.
Trump has clashed with Pope Leo XIV over the war in Iran. Trump called the pope “weak on crime” in a Truth Social post Sunday.
Vance, currently promoting his book about his conversion to Catholicism, said it was much ado about nothing, but suggested the Vatican stay in its lane.
“I don’t think that it’s particularly newsworthy, but I certainly think that in some cases it would be best for the Vatican to stick to matters of morality, to stick to matters of what’s going on in the Catholic Church and let the president of the United States stick to dictating American public policy,” he said.
Vance also spoke about Trump’s controversial AI-generated post online that depicted the president as Jesus. The president later deleted the picture and told CBS News that he thought the image portrayed him as a doctor.
Vance said the post was a “joke” and Trump deleted it “because he realized that a lot of people weren’t understanding his humor.”
“I think the president of the United States likes to mix it up on social media, and I actually think that’s one of the good things about the president is that he’s not filtered,” Vance said. “He doesn’t send everything through a communications professional. He actually reaches out directly to the people.”
Watch:
Pope Leo has urged the U.S. and Iran to “return to the negotiating table.” He also celebrated Trump’s announcement of a temporary ceasefire deal earlier this month.
Vance and a team of U.S. diplomats did not reach a long-term agreement during marathon talks with an Iranian delegation in Pakistan over the weekend.
Then conflict has upped energy prices.
Vance told Fox News the administration “know[s] the American people are hurting” and vowed to continue negotiations.
“I do think that we’re in a place where we’ve accomplished our objectives, we can start to wind this thing down,” he said. “I’d much rather wind this thing down with a big successful negotiation, but regardless, the president said this is not going to go on forever.”
The vice president added, “That’s never his intention, and I think because of that, the energy prices, while painful, are not going to be around forever.”
