Visitors to the Vatican have criticized U.S. President Donald Trump for his harsh remarks about Pope Leo XIV

This picture, taken Tuesday, April 14, 2026, shows the front pages of some Italian newspapers reporting on comments by U.S. President Donald Trump about Pope Leo XIV, with headlines using words such as "outrage", "shock attack", "insult", and Trump's schism". (AP Photo/Domenico Stinellis)

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Inappropriate. Ridiculous. Absurd. Visitors to the Vatican on Tuesday had some choice words for U.S. President Donald Trump after his harsh criticism of Pope Leo XIV for his calls to soften the rhetoric of war.

The world has buzzed at the extraordinary clash between the U.S.-born pope and the American president. Trump called Leo “weak” and captive to the “radical left’’ on social media this week, after the pope called Trump’s threats toward Iran “truly unacceptable.’’

At the Vatican, visitors had Leo’s back while he's away on a 10-day trip to Africa.

“It’s just ridiculous, because if the pope is not speaking about peace, and is not taking care about every people in the world, he’s not the pope,’’ said Joerg Soler, who was visiting the Vatican from Switzerland.

“It’s completely inappropriate,’’ said Mariella Acciaioli, a French tourist. “Things are getting too much. We need to mobilize everyone, especially our leaders, to deal with this behavior that is going beyond every limit.”

U.S. tourist Paul Sarauskas expressed disbelief at Trump’s unprecedented broadside, calling it "absurd.''

“I think he needs to keep his nose out of religion. He’s telling the pope what to do. He’s telling the pope how to do his job,’’ Sarauskas said. “Where the pope just wants to do good things, right? He wants to talk about peace, about helping other people, whereas the current administration is doing something completely opposite. They’re just tearing people apart. They’re talking about division and war and hate.”

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FILE- This combination file photos show on left, President Donald Trump listening during a meeting with North Korean defectors where he talked with reporters about allowing the release of a secret memo on the F.B.I.'s role in the Russia inquiry, in the Oval Office of the White House, on Feb. 2, 2018, in Washington and on right, Pope Leo XIV arriving for his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square, at the Vatican, on Aug. 6, 2025. (AP Photos/Evan Vucci and Gregorio Borgia, File)

Trump clearly expected the American pope to be “subservient” to the United States, said Italian journalist Massimo Franco, who has a new book, “Popes, Dollars and Wars,’’ about U.S.-Vatican relations.

“A pope must be a pope. He must respond to a wider community. And if he sees that Trump’s policy risks to give a distorted view of the United States, I think the pope is helping the United States as well, not just the United States, to find the right path,'' Franco said.

The Rev. Antonio Spadaro, a prominent Italian Jesuit theologian and undersecretary to the Vatican’s Dicastery for Culture and Education, said Trump’s fury “against a moral voice” shows that “the president is powerless.”

“He can’t bring the pope to the same terrain where he has brought everyone else, where he can dominate with language,’’ Spadaro told Italian Radio 24.”In this sense, the moral force of the church is evident. It is not a counter-power but a space in which power is being judged by criteria that power itself cannot control.”

Pope Leo XIV visits the archaeological site of Hippo, in Annaba, Algeria, Tuesday, April 14, 2026, on the second day of an 11-day apostolic journey to Africa. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

El presidente de Estados Unidos, Donald Trump, habla ante la Oficina Oval de la Casa Blanca el lunes 13 de abril de 2026 en Washington. (AP Foto/Alex Brandon)