Pastor Robert Jeffress recently expressed his belief that President Donald Trump has a “better understanding” of what the Bible teaches about government than the pope himself.
Jeffress, who is pastor of First Baptist Dallas and a longtime Trump supporter, made his remarks during a segment on Fox News.
The Trump administration has had a tumultuous relationship with the Vatican and in particular Pope Leo XIV, the first pope from the United States.
Leo was selected as the pope in May 2025 after the passing of Pope Francis. In April of this year, Leo gave his first Easter message as pope, during which he urged for the end of global military conflicts, saying, “Let those who have weapons lay them down.”
Many took the pope’s words to be a direct criticism of the Trump administration. Two months before Leo’s Easter address, the United States launched an attack on Iran, killing its supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
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When asked about his message and the subsequent backlash, the pope said, “I’m not afraid of the Trump administration or of speaking out loudly about the message of the gospel, which is what the church works for.”
“Pope Leo is WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy,” Trump said in response on Truth Social. “I don’t want a Pope who thinks it’s OK for Iran to have a Nuclear Weapon.”
In that same post, Trump took credit for Leo’s papacy, claiming that the only reason an American was selected was because of Trump’s presidency. Said Trump, “If I wasn’t in the White House, Leo wouldn’t be in the Vatican.”
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Last week, Marco Rubio, Trump’s secretary of state and a practicing Catholic, personally visited the pope at the Vatican. Of the meeting, Rubio said, “The holy father is a spiritual leader, first and foremost. I mean, that’s his role to play, and obviously the church has always interacted on behalf of a mission of peace and respect for all of humanity.”
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