WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Marco Rubio will travel to Rome and Vatican City this week in a bid to ease rising tensions between President Donald Trump and Pope Leo XIV over U.S. policies, particularly the Iran war.
The State Department said Monday that Rubio, a Catholic who with this trip will have visited Italy or the Vatican at least three times as the Republican president’s top diplomat, would be in Italy on Thursday and Friday. The Vatican announced that Rubio would meet with Leo, the first American pontiff, on Thursday.
“Secretary Rubio will meet with Holy See leadership to discuss the situation in the Middle East and mutual interests in the Western Hemisphere,” the department said. “Meetings with Italian counterparts will be focused on shared security interests and strategic alignment.”
The trip comes as Trump has criticized Leo for his stances on the Middle East and elsewhere and as the president has drawn pushback for posting a social media image likening himself to Jesus Christ.
Trump lashed out at Leo on social media last month, saying the pope was soft on crime and terrorism for comments about the administration’s immigration policies and deportations as well as the Iran war. Leo then said God doesn’t listen to the prayers of those who wage war. Then, Trump posted the Christ-like image of himself.
Trump has refused to apologize to Leo and has sought to explain away the now-deleted social media post by saying he thought t …