New Pope “Leo XIV” a hard-line critic of Donald Trump policies

Newly elected Pope Leo XIV, Cardinal Robert Prevost of the United States appears on the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica, at the Vatican, May 8, 2025. REUTERS/Yara Nardi

By Emmanuel Akyereko
(Managing Editor)

American Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, the new global leader of the Catholic Church – Pope Leo XIV, is a known critic of the US President Donald Trump for his hard-line policies.

Prevost, 69, born in Chicago – has been elected as the New Pope as he succeeds Pope Francis who passed away last Month aged 88.

Ghanaian Cardinal Peter Turkson was one of the frontrunners however, he failed on his second attempt to become the first African Pope in recent years.

Trump has stated that he was “surprised” to learn of the news however said that it is a “great honor” to have an American pope. Global leaders from several countries including Italy, Spain, Greece, Ukraine, Peru and the United Kingdom have offered their congratulatory messages.

The new Pope has in the past expressed popular views on hot topics including homosexuality as his opinion in 2012 appeared to have criticised the influence of Western media in the flourishing of the phenomena.

“Western mass media is extraordinarily effective in fostering within the general public enormous sympathy for beliefs and practices that are at odds with the Gospel — for example abortion, homosexual lifestyle, euthanasia.”

Meanwhile, such opinions are also got in the midst of American national policies as he has openly criticised some key policies of the Trump-led American government.

Prevost, who has spent several years ministering in the South American nation of Peru, has campaigned for years trumpeting criticisms of Trumps policies as he took aims at the administrations hard-line policies on immigration.

The New Pope’s final X post before being elected by the Conclave in the Sistine Chapel was a reecho of a tweet of a message from Philadelphia-based Catholic commentator Rocco Palmo, who on April 14 slammed Trump’s partnership with El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele on deportation of illegal migrants.

He was actively involved in the US political discussion during Trump’s first term office as US President — in 2017 retweeting a post from Palmo that said, “Calling refugee bans ‘a dark hour of US history,’ [Chicago Archbishop] Blase [Cupich] says ‘the world is watching as we abandon our commitment to American values’.”

His election is being celebrated across Latin America – particularly in Peru, where he lived and worked for more than 20 years and was granted citizenship in 2015 – as a kind of “second Latin American pope”, following his Argentine predecessor, Francis.