America has a clear message for Trump and Hegseth: Scrap the religious rhetoric

Americans overwhelmingly disapprove of the religious rhetoric deployed by President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in recent weeks — and, in contrast, view Pope Leo XIV positively as the pontiff has hit back at the administration, according to a poll.

Trump’s Truth Social post of an AI-generated image depicting him as Jesus, which he was forced to delete after backlash from the religious right,went down incredibly badly with Americans, with 87 percent expressing their disapproval in the Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll.

A further 69 percent disliked it when Hegseth prayed that there would be “overwhelming violence of action against those who deserve no mercy” during a religious service at the Pentagon at the end of March.

Trump’s social media post and Hegseth’s invocation of his religion have also upset Republicans and MAGA voters. Trump’s Jesus social media post, which he later claimed he thought depicted himself as a doctor, was viewed negatively by 80 percent of the president’s 2024 voters and 79 percent of Republicans, according to the poll.

By contrast, more than half of Americans agreed with Leo, who has taken a stand against the Trump administration’s anti-immigration crackdown and the Iran war. The poll found that 66 percent of Americans had a positive reaction to the pontiff’s message that war should be rejected.

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Leo is viewed favorably by 41 percent of Americans who are familiar with him, compared to 16 percent who view him unfavorably, the poll found.

The pontiff has become Trump’s latest target after he denounced “the delusion of omnipotence” fueling the war in Iran in a not-so subtle dig at the president. Leo’s intervention followed Trump’s extraordinary threat to “wipe out an entire civilization.”

In the latest saga between the president and the pontiff, Trump baselessly accused Leo of “endangering Catholics” by supporting Iran’s nuclear weapons program.

“I think he’s endangering a lot of Catholics and a lot of people, but I guess, if it’s up to the Pope,” Trump said Sunday. “He thinks it's just fine for Iran to have a nuclear weapon.”​

The Pope hit back at the claim Wednesday without directly referencing the president. “The mission of the Church is to proclaim the Gospel, to preach peace,” he said. “If someone wants to criticise me for proclaiming the Gospel, let them do so truthfully. For years, the Church has spoken out against all nuclear weapons, so there is no doubt on that point.”

The tension comes ahead of a high-stakes meeting between Leo and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who will meet at the Vatican Thursday for a “frank conversation” about the administration’s policies.

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Hegseth, meanwhile, has leaned into his Evangelical Christianity at the Pentagon, often framing the war in Iran through the lens of his faith and weaving scripture into his remarks at press briefings.

The former Fox News host has prayed for “overwhelming violence” against his enemies and insisted that God stands with the U.S. against Iran, a Muslim-majority nation of some 90 million people.

Experts previously told The Independent that his language potentially undermines the constitutional separation of church and state, alienates patriotic non-Christian service members and risks supercharging the conflict with Tehran, whose leaders are Islamic fundamentalists.

“This is completely, totally unprecedented,” said Michael Weinstein, the president and founder of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation. “He's making it clear that this is Jesus versus Muhammad.”

The Pentagon dismissed the criticisms in a previous statement to The Independent.

“Secretary Hegseth, along with millions of Americans, is a proud Christian,” Pentagon Press Secretary Kingsley Wilson said.

“The Christian faith is woven deeply into the fabric of our nation and shared by America’s wartime leaders like President George Washington, who prayed for his troops at Valley Forge, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who gifted Bibles to American soldiers during WW2 and encouraged them to read it,” Wilson added in an emailed response.

Brendan Rascius contributed to this report

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