For reasons that still don’t make sense, Donald Trump picked a fight with Pope Leo XIV, of all people, lashing out at the pontiff on Sunday night as someone who “likes crime,” caters to “to the Radical Left,” is taking steps that are “hurting the Catholic Church” and has met with “Obama Sympathizers.”

On Monday, the president was offered an opportunity to apologize, or at least to walk back his rhetorical offensive. He refused, insisting again that the pope “said things that are wrong.” A day later, the Republican kept going, scolding the pontiff during an interview with an Italian newspaper; shortly before midnight on Tuesday night, Trump apparently thought it would be a good idea to chide the pope once again by way of his social media platform.

Not to be outdone, his vice president — the first Catholic Republican to ever hold the office — has joined the rhetorical offensive.

On Monday night, JD Vance appeared on Fox News and insisted that “it would be best for the Vatican to stick to matters of morality … and let the president of the United States stick to dictating American public policy.” Putting aside the fact that the president isn’t supposed to be “dictating” anything, the Ohio Republican’s advice didn’t make a lot of sense: The pope drew Trump’s ire by speaking out on matters such as a deadly and destabilizing war in the Middle East and the plight of immigrants seeking a better life, both of which are, by any reasonable measure, “matters of morality.”

A day later, he upped the ante in an unexpected way. NBC News reported:

Vice President JD Vance said Tuesday that Pope Leo XIV should ‘be careful’ when he talks about theology, rebuking the pontiff over his criticisms of U.S. foreign policy.

Vance argued that the pope, who has said Jesus ‘is never on the side of those who once wielded the sword and today drop bombs,’ was failing to take into account conflicts such as World War II.

“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,” the vice president argued during an appearance at a political gathering in Georgia.

Yes, Vance, who converted to Catholicism in 2019, publicly advised the pope to be “careful when he talks about matters of theology.”

For now, let’s not dwell on the obvious, qualitative differences between World War II and the war with Iran that Trump launched for reasons he’s struggled to explain. Instead, let’s consider a broader political question: What exactly is the White House’s strategy here?

Do Trump and Vance believe Leo will be intimidated into silence? Are they trying to send a signal to other religious leaders opposed to the war? Do they believe they can discredit the pontiff, who enjoys stronger public support than they do? Do the Republicans think they’ll appear “tough” by picking a fight with the Vatican? Is this all some sort of elaborate distraction campaign?

I won’t pretend to know their motivation, but if Trump and Vance see a political upside to their increasingly outlandish papal scoldings, they’re mistaken.

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