This is an adapted excerpt from the April 15 episode of “All In with Chris Hayes.”

With the country — and the world at large — reeling from Donald Trump’s misrule, he has decided to do what power-mad kings have done for hundreds of years: He has picked a fight with the pope. Specifically, he has picked a fight over the holy father’s objections to the U.S.-Israel war on Iran.

Now, I think it’s fine to disagree with the pope. I have certainly disagreed with many aspects of Catholic doctrine throughout my life. But in this specific instance, Pope Leo XIV is correct, and Trump is wrong.

The president started a war of choice, which has left thousands dead and at least a million more displaced. He has had seemingly no regard for the loss of life at home or abroad. (Remember, this is a guy who tried to fundraise off the dignified transfer of the caskets of American soldiers.)

The Catholic Church, as a whole, is generally anti-war. That is not a personal attack on Trump. That is their doctrine. But it’s clear Trump takes this very personally.

And there is still absolutely no endgame when it comes to Iran. It is not even clear Trump is particularly interested in how this spiraling conflict ends, if it ends at all.

So just on the merits, I think Leo is totally in the right when he criticizes the hazardous, slapdash way this war has been conducted.

The Catholic Church, as a whole, is generally anti-war. That is not a personal attack on Trump; that is their doctrine. But it’s clear Trump takes this very personally.

He has attacked Leo in yet another social media screed. After posting and deleting an artificial intelligence-generated picture of himself as Jesus Christ this week, the president on Wednesday shared another AI photo of himself embracing Jesus, complete with a caption someone else wrote about exposing demonic child sacrifice, and his own addition, “The Radical Left Lunatics might not like this, but I think it is quite nice!!!  President DJT.”

And as mad kings do, Trump has recruited help in his papal fight. 

“A pontiff or religious leader can say anything they want, but obviously if you wade into political waters, I think you should expect some political response,” Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters Tuesday outside the Capitol. “I think the pope has received some of that.”

Trump’s second-in-command, Vice President JD Vance, a recent Catholic convert, also went after Leo, telling the pontiff that he was out of his depth. “I think that it’s important, in the same way that it’s important for the vice president of the United States to be careful when I talk about matters of public policy, I think it’s very, very important for the pope to be careful when he talks about matters of theology,” Vance said Tuesday at a Turning Points USA event. “I think one of the issues here is that if you’re going to opine on matters of theology, you’ve got to be careful.”

Now, this development is particularly interesting because Vance’s religious conversion is a big part of his rebranded political identity as a hard-right populist. He just wrote a book about it, in fact.

That may be why the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, specifically the chairman of its Committee on Doctrine, felt compelled to put out a statement Wednesday rebuking Vance’s comments, albeit without mentioning the vice president by name.

“For over a thousand years, the Catholic Church has taught just war theory and it is that long tradition the Holy Father carefully references in his comments on war,” the statement read. “A constant tenet of that thousand-year tradition is a nation can only legitimately take up the sword ‘in self-defense, once all peace efforts have failed’ … That is, to be a just war it must be a defense against another who actively wages war, which is what the Holy Father actually said: ‘He does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war.’”

Now, all of this back-and-forth about Catholic teachings is kind of beside the point. Because of course, Trump is not a theologian. Remember, his chief criticism of Leo is not about “just war theory.”

Instead, it is the instantly iconic line, “Pope Leo is WEAK on Crime.”

That is an incredibly funny thing to say. But it is also particularly ironic coming from this president, especially this week. 

We just learned that yet another Jan. 6 rioter, David Daniel, who was pardoned by Trump on his first day in office, has pleaded guilty in a child sexual abuse case. Daniel is just the latest rioter pardoned by Trump who went on to face conviction or a guilty plea in a case regarding the sexual abuse of children.

As Trump continues to lash out at the Vatican, who is the one that’s “weak on crime” here?

Now, to be fair, the Catholic Church has its own history of enabling child abuse. But Trump’s “weak on crime” spree does not end with that one guy.

We also learned that the Department of Justice is moving to vacate seditious conspiracy convictions against members of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, on top of the Jan. 6 commutations they got from the president.

These are people who conspired to violently overthrow the government of the United States. They were convicted by a jury of their peers and incarcerated. Then Trump put them “back on the streets,” to borrow a phrase that he and his allies would use if we were talking about gang members from Latin America instead of a bunch of MAGA thugs.

Are they going to try to overthrow the government a second time? Who knows. But Trump sure doesn’t seem worried about it.

So I am forced to ask the question: As Trump continues to lash out at the Vatican, who is the one who is “weak on crime” here?

Allison Detzel contributed.

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