The message of the Iranian president to Pope Leo, after the “insult” of Donald Trump. “In the name of the great nation of Iran”
Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian sent a message to the Supreme Pontiff on social media on Monday, condemning the “insult” he had received from US President Donald Trump.
In his message, the Iranian leader also appeared to allude to the controversial image that Donald Trump published over the weekend on the Truth Social platform, made with artificial intelligence, in which the current president of the United States is depicted with a divine aura as he heals an injured man in a hospital bed. The image appears to have since been deleted, according to Axios.
“I condemn the insult addressed to Your Excellency, in the name of the great nation of Iran, and declare that the desecration of Jesus, the prophet of peace and brotherhood, is not acceptable to any free person. I wish you glory from Allah,” Masousd Pezeshkian said in the message to Pope Leo on the X platform.
His Holiness Pope Leo XIV (@Pontifex), I condemn the insult to Your Excellency on behalf of the great nation of Iran, and declare that the desecration of Jesus, the prophet of peace and brotherhood, is not acceptable to any free person. I wish you glory by Allah.
— Masoud Pezeshkian (@drpezeshkian) April 13, 2026
Donald Trump's remarks about Pope Leo were also criticized by Mehdi Tabatabaei, deputy for communications in Pezeshkian's chancellery, claiming a smear comparable to the assassination of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, killed in an airstrike at the start of the war launched by the United States and Israel against Iran on February 28.
“When the great religious leader of the Islamic world is assassinated with such shameless audacity and Westerners watch in silence, it is not surprising that they would resort to assassinating the image of the great leader of the world's Christians, His Holiness Pope Leo,” Tabatabaei said, as quoted by CNN.
What Trump had stated and how Pope Leo responded
On Sunday night, in what appeared to be a response to the pope's criticism of both the conflict and the White House's tough immigration policies, Donald Trump said the Supreme Pontiff was “terrible.”
“Papa Leon is WEAK on crime and terrible on foreign policy,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social, his social media platform.
Leon, the first American pope in history, said Monday that he plans to continue speaking out against the war.
“I don't want to get into a debate with him,” Pope Leo told Reuters as he greeted journalists on the plane that was to take him to Algeria, where he begins a 10-day visit to four African countries.
