Trump voters say the pope should 'stay in his lane' and butt out of the Iran war

April 18, 2026, 6:39 PM EDTPHOENIX — Christopher Brandlin was born Catholic, raised Catholic, went to Catholic school and wore a flag-themed cross over his flag-themed tie for President Donald Trump’s appearance Thursday in Las Vegas.Yet in the dispute between Trump and Pope Leo XIV over the Iran war, Brandlin believes it’s the pontiff, not the president, who’s in the wrong.Pope Leo is “actually using more politics than he should,” Brandlin, a Republican candidate for a Nevada state Assembly seat, said in an interview.Thousands of people came to hear Trump speak at a Phoenix megachurch, where he sought to galvanize voters ahead of the midterm elections. Jesse Rieser for NBC NewsThe U.S. attack on Iran has pitted church against state, as Pope Leo and Trump clash publicly over the proper means of ending global conflicts. The war has also tested Trump’s most ardent voters, who had relished his past statements that the U.S. needed to avoid costly foreign entanglements.It appeared that the dustup between the two leaders might split the president’s coalition, consisting in part of Christian conservatives who like his opposition to abortion rights, and “America First” voters who believed he would focus on conditions at home.Yet in interviews with more than 20 Trump supporters who attended his event in Las Vegas and his campaign rally Friday at a megachurch in Phoenix, there was little hint of divided loyalties. Again and again, core Trump voters said that Pope Leo is intruding on the president’s prerogatives when it comes to war and peace and Trump is right to use the military force to defang Iran.Hunter Stine; Hank Story; Ben Christianson. The Trump rally in Phoenix drew a diverse crowd of older and younger supporters.Jesse Rieser for NBC NewsJim Brizeno, 71, a Catholic who was in the audience for Trump's roundtable discussion on the economy in Las Vegas, admonished the pope to “stay in your lane!”Wearing a cap reading, “Trump 45-47-48,” a reference to Trump’s past, present and a constitutionally forbidden future presidency, Brizeno said that Trump was “within his rights to defend himself and defend his actions” against the pope’s rebuke.Neither Trump nor the pope is apologizing, though Leo told reporters aboard the papal plane Saturday that he was not trying to "debate the president" in what seemed to be an effort to tamp down the disagreement.Leo, the leader of 1.4 billion Catholics worldwide and history’s first American pope, posted a statement on X on April 10 saying that a “disciple of Christ … is never on the side of those who once wielded the sword and today drop bombs.”“Military action will not create space for freedom or times of peace,” he wrote.Two days later, Trump posted a retort calling the pontiff “weak on crime and terrible on foreign policy.”The back-and-forth continued, with Leo telling reporters on April 13 at the start of a trip to Africa, “I will continue to speak out loudly against war, looking to promote peace, promoting dialogue and multilateral relationships among states to find just solutions to problems.”Protesters and pro-Trump demonstrators confronted each other outside the Trump campaign event in Phoenix.Jesse Rieser for NBC NewsCue the president, who wrote the next day: “Will someone please tell Pope Leo that Iran has killed at least 42,000 innocent, completely unarmed, protesters in the last two months, and that for Iran to have a nuclear bomb is absolutely unacceptable.”Trump didn’t mention the pope during his two stops out West, as he touted his policies and tried to mobilize voters ahead of the midterm elections in November. But many of his supporters have been watching and have taken a side. Trump’s side.A common refrain among the Trump faithful was that the pope was venturing into a secular arena that he’d best avoid.Blake Marnell, left, is a retiree from San Diego who attended Trump’s rally on Friday in Phoenix.Jesse Rieser for NBC NewsBlake Marnell, 61, a retiree from San Diego who attended Trump’s rally at Dream City Church in Phoenix, said that when Leo “tries to make himself political, he goes into areas where he’s probably not in his wheelhouse.”Marnell wore an orange-and-white suit in a pattern depicting a brick wall, symbolizing Trump’s promise to build a wall on the southern border.“Anyone can talk about politics, but if I were the pope, I wouldn’t be talking about it,” he added.Guests leaving the “Build the Red Wall” event on Friday.Jesse RieserScholars and religious leaders disputed the view that Leo is trespassing when it comes to matters of armed conflict. In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus delivered a series of blessings that included: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the sons of God.”The church has long grappled with such issues, and Leo isn’t the first pope to speak out: Pope John Paul II opposed then-President George W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq in 2003.“Questions of war and peace have been the church’s lane for centuries,” John Carr, founder of the Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life at Georgetown University, said in an interview. “They’ve been thinking about the use of violence since the invention of gunpowder.”Penny Visser, of Sun City, Ariz., came to event with her daughter, Tori, a college student.Jesse Rieser for NBC NewsBishop Mariann Budde, of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, D.C., told NBC News: “Speaking about war, peace and human dignity is squarely within the vocation of all religious leaders, because those are moral questions at the heart of the common good. When a political leader answers that witness with insults, he is treating moral accountability like partisan combat, and that says far more about our politics than it does about the pope.”In his inauguration speech in January 2025, Trump said that he would measure success not only by wars won, but “wars we never get into.” Part of his political appeal has been his pledge to avoid overseas entanglements. In interviews, though, the people who came to hear him speak accepted his contention that the Iran war is necessary to keep the regime from acquiring nuclear weapons.“There were a lot of wars in the Bible and they were justified,” said Penny Visser, 65, of Sun City, Arizona, who came to the Phoenix event with her daughter, Tori, 20, a college student. “What gives the pope the right to say no on this one.”Supporters display the iconic image of a bloodied Trump raising his fist after an assassination attempt during the 2024 campaign.Jesse Rieser for NBC News“What gives him the right to come into our country and say, ‘No, you can’t do this and this and this.’ He needs to stay out of our country’s business.”Though he has speculated about his fate in the afterlife, Trump has fostered the notion that heaven is smiling upon him and his policies.On the one-year anniversary of the assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, Trump told reporters: “God was protecting me. Maybe because God wanted to see our country do better or do really well — make America great again.”He recently posted an image on his social media site, Truth Social, that depicted him as a Christ-like figure in robes attending to a bedridden man. Amid a backlash, the picture was later taken down, and Trump said he had thought it portrayed him as a doctor.On Wednesday, he reposted an image depicting Jesus embracing him in his signature dark suit and red tie.“The pope is so full of crap,” said Marine Corps veteran Joshua Remmert, 48, of Mesa, Arizona, after watching Trump’s rally in Phoenix.“I know President Trump was blessed and given to us by God. So, yes, when he does something like go after Iran, I think it’s the right thing. I think God is on our side.”Merchandise for sale outside the rally in Phoenix on Friday. Though he has speculated about his fate in the afterlife, Trump has fostered the notion that heaven is smiling upon him and his policies.Jesse Reiser for NBC News