Pope Leo appoints three bishops critical of Trump amid feud with White House officials

Pope Leo XIV has appointed three new bishops who have previously criticized the Trump administration or its supporters amid his apparent feud with the White House.

Pope Leo has criticized President Donald Trump’s war with Iran, called his threat to annihilate Iranian civilization “truly unacceptable,” and said he’s not afraid of his administration. The president has called Leo “weak on crime and terrible for foreign policy,” while Vice President JD Vance, who is Catholic, has said the pope should be “careful when he talks about matters of theology.”

Pope Leo’s new bishops — Evelio Menjivar-Ayala, Robert Boxie III and Gary Studniewski — have track records of criticizing the Trump administration. Menjivar-Ayala will serve as the new bishop for West Virginia, while Boxie and Studniewski will be the auxiliary bishops for the Archdiocese of Washington.

Menjivar-Ayala, 55, is a formerly undocumented immigrant from El Salvador who was brought to the U.S. in the trunk of a car, according to The Washington Post. He criticized Trump's hardline immigration last year.

“For weeks now, the federal government has pursued a ‘shock and awe’ campaign of aggressive threats and highly visible operations of questionable legality that go far beyond mere immigration ‘enforcement,’” he wrote in an April 2025 op-ed for the National Catholic Reporter.

open image in gallery

Boxie has condemned attacks on diversity, equity and inclusion programs, which the Trump administration has sought to cut from the federal government.

“In a lot of ways we have made great progress, but in so many ways, I feel like we’re regressing,” he told OSV News last year. “It’s really frustrating — especially this moment that we’re living in. The attacks on ‘DEI’ — I don’t even know what that means anymore. It’s a term that’s been hijacked. It means a lot of things to a lot of different people.”

“I think at its core, it’s what America is all about. We are a diverse nation with people from all over the world. Diversity is a good thing. Diversity is of God. And the fact that it’s been turned into something negative — or something that should be avoided or not talked about — just flies in the face of who we are as Americans,” he added.

Studniewski has criticized the Trump supporters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, calling the attack “very disturbing, very disheartening,” according to the Catholic News Service.

“It was a normal day, until all that sickening unrest in the afternoon,” he added.

Leo and the Trump administration have sought to downplay reports of apparent tension. Leo said on April 18 it is “not in my interest at all” to debate Trump and suggested the narrative about them has “not been accurate in all of its aspects.”

open image in gallery

That same day, Vance said he was “grateful” to Leo for addressing the issue.

“While the media narrative constantly gins up conflict–and yes, real disagreements have happened and will happen–the reality is often much more complicated,” Vance wrote on X.

“Pope Leo preaches the gospel, as he should, and that will inevitably mean he offers his opinions on the moral issues of the day. The President–and the entire administration–work to apply those moral principles in a messy world,” he added.

The Independent has contacted the White House and Holy See for comment.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies