Catholicism and MAGA: The Conflict No One Saw Coming
On Easter Sunday, as Pope Leo XIV stood before tens of thousands in St. Peter’s Square and called on “those who have the power to unleash wars” to choose peace, President Trump was posting all-caps threats demanding Iran open the Strait of Hormuz or face annihilation.
The contrast was jarring, and, in many ways, intentional. Two days later, Leo went further, stepping outside his residence at Castel Gandolfo to call Trump’s threat to destroy Iran’s “whole civilization” truly unacceptable. Hours after that, the two countries reached a ceasefire less than two hours before Trump’s self-imposed deadline. The pope welcomed it with what he described as “great satisfaction.”
All of this landed against a backdrop that few could have scripted. Just days earlier, the Pentagon hosted a Good Friday service for more than 3,500 employees — explicitly for Protestants only. An internal email from Air Force leadership made the point bluntly: “Just a friendly reminder: There will be a Protestant Service (No Catholic Mass) for Good Friday today at the Pentagon Chapel.”
Roughly a quarter of United States service members identify as Catholic.
For the American right, a movement that spent years treating the Catholic Church as its ideological home, the rupture with Rome has never looked more complete.
So, what is going on behind the scenes?
