MAGA America was in meltdown over the election of a new American pope with a track record of publicly criticising JD Vance and Trump and showing sympathy for migrants.
Robert Prevost overcame 66/1 odds to be selected as Pope Leo XIV on Thursday, becoming the first North American pontiff to hold the role.
But conservative news pundits and Trump supporters were incensed by the decision of the cardinals to appoint a pope slated to be among the ‘most progressive’.
One commentator went so far as to call Prevost a ‘liberal piece of s**t’ – for disagreeing with the Vice President’s reading of 13th century priest Thomas Aquinas.
Steve Bannon, the former White House Chief Strategist, called Prevost the ‘worst pick for MAGA Catholics’ and deemed him the ‘anti-Trump pope’.
Days before, he told Piers Morgan he thought the ‘dark horse’ candidate was ‘one of the ones closest to Francis ideologically’.
Laura Loomer, who has maintained close ties with the president, lamented online: ‘The new Pope once retweeted a post about how we need to keep praying for career criminal & drug addict George Floyd.
‘The tweet said, “May all hatred, violence and prejudice be eradicated.” What prejudice? Is that another way to spell FENTANYL OVERDOSE? MARXIST POPE!’
‘He is anti-Trump, anti-MAGA, pro-open Borders, and a total Marxist like Pope Francis,’ she went on, later. ‘Catholics don’t have anything good to look forward to.’
Prevost did reportedly vote in the Illinois Republican primaries in 2012, 2014 and 2016.
But he has diverged from the new administration on a number of key issues, echoing the late Pope Francis’ views on immigration – a topic Francis and Trump clashed over.
From his posts on X, the new pontiff is expected to carry on as a counterbalance to Trump, representing 1.4bn Catholics worldwide, including around 53mn in the U.S.
Newly elected Pope Leo XIV, Robert Prevost from the main central loggia balcony of the St Peter’s Basilica for the first time on Thursday
JD Vance and Donald Trump in the Oval Office on Thursday, before the new pope was elected
Podcaster Joey Mannarino told 600,000 followers the new pope was a ‘liberal piece of s**t’, sharing Prevost’s rebuttal of the Vice President’s reading of ‘ordo amoris’ – a Christian concept of ‘rightly ordered love’ that made waves earlier this year.
Vance had said in an interview with Fox News in January: ‘There is a Christian concept that you love your family and then you love your neighbor, and then you love your community, and then you love your fellow citizens, and then, after that, prioritize the rest of the world. A lot of the far left has completely inverted that.’
Critics judged that Vance, a Catholic, had misread Thomas Aquinas’ idea of the ‘order of love’, accusing him of using the concept to support political ideology.
Prevost joined in the backlash, writing on X in early February: ‘JD Vance is wrong: Jesus doesn’t ask us to rank our love for others.’
While Vance, a Catholic, was careful to congratulate the new pontiff, Trump-aligned commentators were less choice with their words.
Mike Cernovich, a right-wing commentator and conspiracy theorist, deemed Prevost an ‘open borders globalist’ who would ‘be pushing for abortion soon’.
He shared posts from the new pope about gun control and deportations to El Salvador as apparent evidence of Leo’s dialectical opposition to MAGA America.
Right-wing commentator Megyn Kelly was at first pleased with the election of an American pope.
But she later asked on X whether it was ‘too much to hope that some 20-year-old ran the new pope’s X account and he never looked at it?’
Prior to his selection, Prevost had been vocal on a number of issues, painting a picture of his personal politics and what might shape his papacy.
In April, he shared a post from a Catholic commentator who took aim at Trump and the president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, for making light of the deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia.
‘Is your conscience not disturbed? How can you stay quiet?’ the shared post read.
Steve Bannon spoke to Piers Morgan about the pope, then just a candidate, before selection
Pope Leo XIV addresses the crowds as he appears on the balcony of St Peter’s Basilica after his election, at the Vatican, Thursday, May 8, 2025
In March 2022, he shared an article from Catholic News, in which the Vatican expressed its willingness to help as a humanitarian crisis emerged with the war in Ukraine.
He had also reposted a tweet in 2018 that read: ‘There is nothing remotely Christian, American, or morally defensible about a policy that takes children away from their parents and warehouses them in cages. This is being carried out in our name and the shame is on us all.’
And he shared several messages directly opposing Trump’s immigration orders – including a 2018 letter from Peru’s Catholic leaders thanking the Trump administration for ‘stopping the separation of migrant children from their parents.’
Pope Leo spent the majority of his career in Latin America, even becoming a naturalized citizen of Peru.
Cardinal Prevost emerged only in recent days as a contender for the papacy.
The tennis loving cardinal – who is also known as Father Bob – is seen as the ‘least American of the Americans’ and a silent reformer who would carry on the work of Pope Francis.
He was a popular choice with the Latin American and North American cardinals, although he has kept his views on topics such as women clergy and same sex unions quiet.
Undated picture of Robert Prevost, now Pope Leo XIV
Faithful celebrate on St Peter’s Square as they witness white smoke after a new pope is elected at the conclave on May 8, 2025 in Vatican City
In his first words as Pope Francis’ successor, uttered from the loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica, Leo said, ‘Peace be with you,’ and emphasized a message of peace, dialogue and missionary evangelization. He wore the traditional red cape of the papacy — a cape that Francis had eschewed on his election in 2013.
The crowd in St. Peter’s Square erupted in cheers when white smoke poured out of the Sistine Chapel on the second day of the conclave. Priests made the sign of the cross and nuns wept as the crowd shouted ‘Viva il papa!’
Waving flags from around the world, tens of thousands of people waited to learn who had won and were shocked when an hour later, the senior cardinal deacon appeared on the loggia and said ‘Habemus Papam!’ and announced the winner was Prevost.
He spoke to the crowd in Italian and Spanish, but not English.
