If you think the clash between Pope Leo XIV and President Donald Trump is just a war of words that will pass when the news cycle moves on, you are most likely mistaken.
Their public spat is part of a larger battle that’s been raging behind the scenes for years — one that may accelerate if the war with Iran is prolonged.
It’s also a conflict between two competing brands of Christianity, led by two distinctive versions of Christ: the historical Jesus vs. the “MAGA Jesus.”
Pope Leo is not simply challenging Trump. He’s critiquing MAGA Jesus, the version of Jesus some of the president’s followers have often invoked in recent years.
The MAGA Jesus is not the one taught in Sunday School — the nonviolent, itinerant teacher who preached beatitudes such as “blessed are the meek.” He is the “warrior Christ” — the action-hero Jesus depicted in the Book of Revelation with eyes like “flames of fire” and “a robe dipped in blood” who leads the armies of heaven while riding a white horse.
This is the square-jawed Jesus wearing a red MAGA hat whose image is often displayed at Trump’s rallies. It’s the version of Christianity that Trump alluded to when he recently said God supports America’s war with Iran.
It’s the version Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth cited when he asked Americans to pray “every day, on bended knee” for a military victory “in the name of Jesus Christ” against “apocalyptic” Iranian enemies — or when he appeared to read a fake Bible quote from the film “Pulp Fiction” during a Pentagon prayer service.
MAGA isn’t just a political movement – it’s also a religious one
What’s changed in recent years is that many American fundamentalists and evangelicals prefer the MAGA Jesus to the real Jesus. This is what Peter Wehner, an author and former speechwriter for President George W. Bush, noted in an essay earlier this year entitled, “MAGA Jesus is not the real Jesus.”
Right-wing movements “are prying Christianity further and further away from the ethic and teachings of Jesus,” he wrote. “The Trump administration has gone one step further, inverting authentic Christian faith by selling in a dozen different ways cruelty and the will to power in the name of Jesus. It has welcomed Christians into a theological twilight zone, where the beatitudes are invoked on behalf of a political movement with authoritarian tendencies.”
This kind of Jesus doesn’t arise in a vacuum. This muscular version of Jesus has become increasingly visible because MAGA is not just a political movement; it’s also a religious movement. It offers Trump as its “chosen one,” and Israel is the “chosen nation.”
It has its own set of prophets, religious iconography, claims of miracles, and its own distinctive theology: White Christian nationalism — a false belief that America was founded as a Christian nation.
Some believe this warrior Christ is set to return because of the US’ clash with Iran, Diana Butler Bass, an historian and author told CNN last year. She says some White evangelicals in the US see the hostilities with Iran as a sign that the world is approaching the “end times” — a series of cataclysmic events ushering in the Second Coming of Christ.
“There’s almost a kind of spiritual eagerness for a war in the Middle East,” Bass told CNN. “They believe a war is going to set off a series of events that will result in Jesus returning.”
How the Pope’s Jesus differs from MAGA Jesus
For years, critics have tried to dismantle this “MAGA Jesus.” Some White evangelicals, religious scholars and others have labeled this version of faith as “heresy” and an “imposter Christianity.” They’ve written impassioned essays and made documentaries challenging its legitimacy — all without making much of a dent in the allure of MAGA Jesus.
But Pope Leo may be the most formidable foe this form of Christianity has ever faced. He carries a moral authority as the “Vicar of Christ” to the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics. He is the first American-born pope.
Pope Leo invokes another Jesus. That Jesus is not found primarily in the Book of Revelation but in the four New Testament Gospels and the Epistles, such as the Apostle Paul’s letters. He’s also found in Catholic social teachings which say that Christians are obligated to care for the poor and vulnerable; Christians should oppose the death penalty and abortion; and that targeting civilians in war is wrong and that nations must seek to avoid war.
That tradition is why Pope Leo recently called Jesus the “King of Peace, who rejects war,” and — quoting the Old Testament prophet Isaiah — said that God rejects the prayers of those leaders who start wars and “have hands full of blood.” It’s why Leo criticized the Iran war on social media, saying that any disciple of Christ “is never on the side of those who once wielded the sword and today drop bombs.”
Some may dismiss Pope Leo’s rebukes as inconsequential. Russian dictator Joseph Stalin reportedly once dismissed the Pope during World War II by asking, “The Pope — how many divisions does he have?” And will Leo’s criticisms prompt Trump’s MAGA Christian followers to completely break from the President? Probably not.
Yet there is historic precedent for a pope’s moral authority reshaping a political movement. Pope John Paul II would play an instrumental role in the collapse of communism in Russia. His 1979 visit to Poland sparked a “psychological earthquake” that spread throughout the communist bloc and led to the downfall of the Soviet Union.
Pope Leo’s words have added impact for another reason: He grew up in America. He can’t be easily dismissed as an “anti-American Argentinian leftist” like his predecessor, Pope Francis, was sometimes labeled.
Vice President JD Vance has also waded into this debate. He recently said the Pope should “be careful” when talking about theology and questioned Leo’s insistence that disciples of Christ are never on the side of those who wage war.
“Was God on the side of the Americans who liberated France from the Nazis?” Mr. Vance said after referring to the pope’s comment. “I certainly think the answer is yes.”
Vance’s comments, and the spat between Pope Leo and Trump, represent a missed opportunity for a vigorous debate about the Catholic Church’s “Just War theory.” That moral teaching says a nation can legitimately only “take up the sword in self-defense once all peace efforts have failed,” along with other considerations.
But that debate has been lost in the focus on soundbites and AI images of Jesus that frame the clash between Pope Leo and Trump. And the debate will intensify if more people suffer and die in America’s war with Iran.
If the war goes on, the country’s divisions over the conflict will deepen — and opposing sides will continue to cite their version of Jesus.