Donald Trump Vs. Pope Leo XIV: A Tale of Two Americans

Donald Trump has had his way in getting his U.S. budget — the “One Big Beautiful Bill” (OBBB) passed. As Americans grapple with the consequences of the Trump administration’s new budget law — a law that slashes vital programs for the poor while favoring the wealthy — the rest of the world watches the United States.

Moral questions Republicans won’t raise

Since the new law, which was signed by Trump on July 4th, poses many moral questions, one voice that should play a major role in assessing the social and economic implications is that of a fellow American, Pope Leo XIV.

He should be able to speak with a great deal of moral clarity not just owing to his current role as Pope, but as a man who grew up on Chicago’s South side.

The American from the poor side of Chicago

The South Side was in Leo’s formative years and remains very diverse, both racially and socioeconomically. When he was growing up in Dolton, Illinois, on the edge of the South Side, community residents were often aspirational.

They sought and found good jobs in the area’s industrial base. However, that began to dwindle over the years, the community became more racially diverse and inequities grew.

Acquainted with inequality and poverty

Due to the dominance of Democratic Party politics, the Chicago area partook of the benefits of President Johnson’s War on Poverty and Great Society — chiefly Medicaid, Medicare and other programs aimed at alleviating poverty. Robert Francis Prevost — aka the Pope — would know those programs as well as the needs that they address.

His years in Peru, too, served to acquaint Prevost with inequality and poverty. He often traveled by horse to reach remote villages. In those years, he experienced the ravages of political violence against refugees and other marginalized people.

A theological imperative

Given his personal experiences, it is no surprise then that Pope Leo XIV has made social justice and the fight against inequality the cornerstone of his mission from the outset of his papacy.

Indeed, his choice of name was a nod to Pope Leo XIII, the champion of workers and architect of modern Catholic social teaching.

Pope Leo XIII (1810-1903) was known as “The Pope of the Workers.” He authored the groundbreaking 1891 encyclical “Rerum Novarum,” which laid the foundation for modern Catholic social teaching. This encyclical recognized the need that “a remedy must be found quickly for the misery and wretchedness pressing so unjustly on the majority of the working class.”

A voice that must be loud and clear

Today, as millions of Americans face the prospect of losing access to healthcare, affordable housing and food assistance, Pope Leo XIV’s voice must be loud and clear.

After all, for Pope Leo XIV, the poor are not an afterthought — they are at the heart of the Church’s mission. He reminds us that “the poor are not a distraction for the Church, but our most beloved brothers and sisters.” He calls on all people of goodwill to move beyond comforting words to “real responsibility and structural change to uplift the poor.”

Trump: At odds with Christian values

The Trump administration’s budget is not merely a collection of fiscal policy decisions. It is a statement of national priorities. By targeting the most vulnerable — children, the elderly, the sick and the working poor — this law stands in opposition to all the values Pope Leo XIV champions.

He has repeatedly insisted that “helping the poor is a matter of justice before it is a question of charity.” For the Pope, indifference to the suffering of the marginalized is not just a policy failure — it is a moral one.

In words that Donald Trump would never understand, Leo has stated that “no one is exempted from striving to ensure respect for the dignity of every person, especially the most frail and vulnerable, from the unborn to the elderly, from the sick to the unemployed, citizens and immigrants alike”.

Needed: Structural change, not just charity

Crucially, Pope Leo XIV’s deep understanding of the issues of social inequity leads him to pursue structural change — i.e., policies that guarantee labor rights, access to education, housing and healthcare as universal human rights.

In the Pope’s words, “the fruits of human labor should be equally accessible to all.” Trump’s new budget law, by deepening the chasm between rich and poor, betrays this fundamental principle.

A test of conscience

Of course, the Trump administration’s budget law is, at its core, a test of the United States’ conscience.

And it is a test that the United States has been failing. Most galling in that regard is the fact that many of Donald Trump’s core MAGA supporters hail from the Christian Right. They evidently like to spew out all sorts of biblical citations, but fail to act accordingly.

That is also particularly visible in the openly racist elements of the Trump coalition. Christian values and the idea of inclusion are evidently primarily for whites only.

Therefore, it is not too much to say that Trump’s core supporters are ultimately seeking to impose White Christian Nationalism on the United States — which, ironically, by all research is growing ever more secular.

This new U.S. budget law — and other accompanying acts by which the Trump administration tears the fabric of American society apart along color lines — underscore the fact that he and his team aims to bring about a wholesale reversal of the American social contract — weak as it has long been.

Conclusion

Let us hope that Pope Leo XIV’s response will be unequivocal. There cannot be any doubt that, from the perspective of the Bishop of Rome who grew up on Chicago’s South side, Trump’s policies are totally incompatible with the demands of justice and the teachings of Christ.

Pope Leo should therefore urge all Americans and their leaders to reject indifference, embrace solidarity and work to strengthen a society where the dignity of every person is upheld. Otherwise, the United States will vastly undershoot its human development potential.

Unfortunately, given the high degree of elitism that has long been inherent in U.S. politics, the world has reason to doubt that no matter how clear the Pope’s message, the majority of Americans will not rise to the moral challenge.