Christianity is not Trump's native tongue. He does not know our language or our ways, and he does not understand that you cannot go after the pope.
By Austin Ruse
Crisis Magazine
April 18, 2026
The president seems to be surprised that Catholics of all stripes are rushing to defend Pope Leo from his odd attacks.
On Tuesday he went after Giorgia Meloni of Italy. She said his attacks on Leo were "unacceptable." He said, "She's unacceptable. She's unacceptable because she doesn't mind that Iran has a nuclear weapon and would blow up Italy in two minutes if they had the chance."
He made a swipe at Riley Gaines of all people for criticizing his attacks on the pope.
To be sure, we wish the pope would not say certain things, such as when he appears to deny the concept of just war:
God does not bless any conflict. Anyone who is a disciple of Christ, the Prince of Peace, is never on the side of those who once wielded the sword and today drop bombs. Military action will not create space for freedom or times of #Peace, which comes only from the patient promotion of coexistence and dialogue among peoples.
One also wishes the pope did not follow and react to the daily news cycle. You don't have to speak to all microphones on all topics.
Having said all that, Trump ought not to go after Leo, and he ought to understand that Catholics of all stripes will defend Leo. I am not sure how true this was under Francis, but more Catholics are claiming Leo as their own than ever did under Francis.
The problem for Trump is that he is not of our tribe. Let me explain.
I use a taxonomy of Yoram Hazony's from his masterful book The Virtue of Nationalism.
He argues that nations do not magically come together one day when there is a document and an agreement-the so-called "consent of the governed." He argues instead for organic growth that begins with family, then clan, then tribe, and finally nation.
He argues correctly that we were a people long before we had a government. And if our government ever fell, we would remain a people. I will refer you to his book to explain how families become clans, which then become tribes, and then, finally, become nations. It mostly concerns trust, identity, and common defense. But we'll apply at least a part of this to the Church.
I live in Northern Virginia, surrounded by faith-filled Catholic families, dozens and dozens of them, and several powerful schools of all levels. In my upcoming book, Not Just for Kings: The Secrets to a 500-Year Family, I refer to this grouping as the Great Northern Virginia Catholic Clan. Across the Potomac River in Maryland is the Great Montgomery County Catholic Clan. There are such clans all across the country: Dallas, Front Royal, Steubenville, Chicago, Orange County, Birmingham, Cincinnati, and many more. Our children gather at amazing schools like the University of Dallas, Franciscan, Benedictine, TAC, Belmont Abbey, Christendom, and many more.
There is, as Peter Wolfgang refers to it, a re-ghettoization. Many decades ago, there were ethnic parishes all over, in every city: Italian, Polish, German, Irish. These were derisively called ghettoes; they were embarrassing to some, but they were very valuable, more valuable than what happened after: the great vanillazation of Catholics and Catholicism.
There seems to be a great effort at re-ghettoization, and this is a good thing. There is pushback from some, whose names I will not mention but who may have grown up in places like Steubenville and now find these places culturally and theologically distasteful, even harmful.
And there is this effort to make Catholicism weird again, what with Catholics processing through secular streets wearing funny clothes with incense filling the air. These customs tie us together.
So, what you see all across our country are families, clans, and then the Tribe. We are part of a Tribe that stretches across the country, from shore to shore, border to border. Meet someone somewhere and tell them your daughter goes to UD and dollars to donuts you will hear, "Oh, then you must know the Smiths...or the Tellers...or whomever." "Oh sure, we know them well."
Sometimes I wish our Tribe were bigger and that we did not know everyone. One day it will come.
But in the meantime, what Trump has inadvertently done is go after our Tribe. And he put up that meme of him as a healing Christ. Good grief. Talk about an own goal. At least he admitted it in his own way by taking it down and dissembling about it.
Part of the problem is that he is not one of us. As I wrote several years ago, after the kerfuffle about Trump saying, "Happy Good Friday," or the time he said, "Two Corinthians," instead of "Second Corinthians," Christianity is not his native tongue. He does not know our language or our ways, and he does not understand that you cannot go after the pope. Catholics of all stripes will step in to defend the pope.
The bottom line for me is that I like Trump and I like Leo, and they ought to knock it off.
This article was originally published on Crisis Magazine.
Austin Ruse is a contributing editor to Crisis Magazine. He is president of the Center for Family and Human Rights in New York and Washington DC. He is the author of several books including, Under Siege: No Finer Time to be a Faithful Catholic (Crisis Publications). He can be reached at email protected.