Pope Leo XIV, the first American pope, was embroiled in US politics within minutes of his election.
US President Donald Trump congratulated Chicago-born Robert Prevost — a registered Republican — on his election, but the new pope may clash with the White House.
As a cardinal he criticized Vice President JD Vance for his stance on immigration, and has repeatedly lambasted the Trump administration. Trump-supporters appeared unimpressed: One MAGA activist called Leo a “WOKE MARXIST POPE.”
His selection represents a rejection of “intense lobbying [for] a pontiff sympathetic to President Donald Trump,” Time magazine argued, and his chosen papal name harks back to Leo XIII, the early-20th-century pope credited with kickstarting the Church’s acceptance of political modernity, the Financial Times wrote.