Pope Leo Slams Trump, Vance, and Hegseth All in One Go

On Tuesday evening, the Chicago-born Pope Leo XIV spoke out against anti-immigrant sentiment in the United States, as well as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s bellicose rhetoric.

At an unusual gathering of military leaders earlier that day, Hegseth had told the top brass to be “prepared for war, not for defense,” while espousing the use of “overwhelming and punishing violence on the enemy” and promising to “untie the hands of our warfighters to intimidate, demoralize, hunt and kill the enemies of our country.”

Speaking to reporters in Italian, Leo called Hegseth’s rhetoric “worrying,” per the Catholic News Agency, “because it shows each time an increase in tensions.” Citing Hegseth’s change in job title from “secretary of defense” to “secretary of war,” the pope said, “Let’s hope it is only a way of speaking.”

The pontiff also discussed Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich’s decision to present a lifetime achievement award to outgoing Democratic Senator Dick Durbin, who represents Illinois and is a Catholic, but whose support of legal abortion stirred conservative backlash against his announced honor. (Durbin ultimately opted to decline the award.)

“I’m not terribly familiar with the particular case,” Leo said in English when asked about the controversy. “I think that it’s very important to look at the overall work that a senator has done during, if I’m not mistaken, 40 years of service in the United States Senate.”

The pope noted that some people claim to be “pro-life” while failing to extend that sentiment to other issues.

“Someone who says, ‘I am against abortion,’ but says, ‘I am in favor of the death penalty’ is not really pro-life,” he observed. “Someone who says that, ‘I am against abortion, but I am in agreement with the inhuman treatment of immigrants who are in the United States,’ I don’t know if that’s pro-life.”

While Leo didn’t name names, President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance fall squarely into this category, as professed pro-lifers whose administration’s policies on the death penalty and immigration are anything but Christian.

Ethics be damned, the Trump administration is blatantly pinning the government shutdown on Democrats.

An email issued to federal workers Tuesday left little room for doubt about how the executive branch wanted to frame the congressional failure.

“President [Donald] Trump opposes a government shutdown, and strongly supports the enactment of H.R. 5371, which is a clean Continuing Resolution to fund the government through November 21,” the email, which was obtained by HuffPost, stated. “Unfortunately, Democrats are blocking this Continuing Resolution in the U.S. Senate due to unrelated policy demands.”

The email was received by employees at the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Social Security Administration, reported HuffPost. Leaders of those same agencies sent out the email.

That kind of language is in violation of the Standards of Ethical Conduct for Employees of the Executive Branch, according to ethics experts. It could also violate the Hatch Act, which is designed to limit partisan messaging from federal employees.

But it hasn’t been the only instance in which the Trump administration has ignored long-standing presidential principles in order for Donald Trump to get his way.

The official White House website featured similar messages Wednesday. A banner atop the page reads: “Democrats have shut down the government,” followed by a timer tracking the amount of time it’s been since both parties failed to reach an agreement to continue funding the country.

Above that, an animated banner reads, “Democrat Shutdown: Democrats in Their Own Words.” That banner links out to another White House page titled “Live News” that features a running feed of edited comments from top Democratic lawmakers about the continuing resolution. (To be clear, the feed is not live, and it does not feature news.)

The Department of Housing and Urban Development showed a similar banner on its web page Tuesday, attacking the “radical left” for refusing a funding plan that would advance Trump’s agenda.

“The Radical Left are going to shut down the government and inflict massive pain on the American people unless they get their $1.5 trillion wish list of demands,” the notice read. “The Trump administration wants to keep the government open for the American people.”

Donald Sherman, the executive director and chief counsel of the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, told HuffPost Tuesday that it was “hard to imagine a worse message from a government agency” than the one delivered by HUD.

“But this is certainly consistent with an administration that makes enemies lists,” Sherman told the outlet.

Donald Trump on Tuesday threatened that he would weaponize a government shutdown against Democrats by having his White House budget director, Russell Vought, slash “things they like.”

The shutdown came overnight, and on Wednesday morning, Vought announced plans to freeze funds appropriated toward infrastructure projects in the state represented by the two top-ranking congressional Democrats.

On X, Vought said that “roughly $18 billion in New York City infrastructure projects have been put on hold,” specifically naming the Hudson Tunnel project and Second Avenue subway.

The Hudson Tunnel project is a plan to construct new and improved rail tunnels connecting New York City and New Jersey, expanding service along the country’s busiest rail route. The Second Avenue subway is planned to connect a station in East Harlem, in an area that has been a “subway desert” for more than 85 years, to one in Lower Manhattan.

Vought said the funds are being withheld to ensure they are not being used for diversity, equity, and inclusion purposes, though he did not immediately elaborate on the purported relationship between the two key transit infrastructure projects and the right-wing bugbear that is DEI.

It’s difficult to interpret Vought’s choice as anything but an attempt to punish Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer, both of New York, who are the minority leaders in the House and Senate, respectively.

Oracle CEO Safra Catz—who is currently leading the acquisition of TikTok’s U.S. assets—told former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak in 2015 that they had to “embed the love and respect for Israel in the American culture.” Now, as Oracle moves to take control of TikTok’s algorithm, Catz and Oracle chief technology officer (and avowed Zionist) Larry Ellison will seek to do just that. 

Catz’s message, first reported on by Responsible Statecraft and obtained in a hack of Barak’s email, was titled “I’d like your input.” 

“We have all been horrified by the growth of the BDS movement in college campuses and have concluded that we have to fight this battle before the kids even get to college,” Catz wrote. “We believe that we have to embed the love and respect for Israel in the American culture. That means getting the message to the American people in a way they can consume it.” 

Catz, who was still head of Oracle at the time, also mentioned that her sister, Saritz Catz, was a “longtime Hollywood writer-producer” as well as a “prominent pro-Israel activist and AIPAC national leader.” She added that her sister was working on a reality show, Women of the IDF, meant to “humanize the IDF in the eyes of the American public.” 

The Israeli American CEO of one of the country’s most powerful companies was asking Israel’s former prime minister for advice on how to better spread pro-Israel propaganda back in 2015. Now she’ll control the algorithm that many conservatives and liberals alike believe is responsible for helping shatter Israel’s (tailored) image among the vast majority of young Americans, who have woken up to the reality of  Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. 

This report comes just days after current Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu openly admitted that TikTok was the most important arena to push pro-Israel propaganda in. 

“We have to fight with the weapons that apply to the battlefield.… The most important purchase going on right now is … TikTok. Number one. And I hope it goes through because it can be consequential. And the other one? X. We have to talk to Elon. He’s not an enemy, he’s a friend. We should talk to him. Now, if we can get those two things, we get a lot.… We have to fight the fight, to give direction to the Jewish people and give direction to our non-Jewish friends.”

While sources say that Catz will be “nowhere near the algorithm of TikTok,” her past actions and emails paint a very clear agenda. 

Qatar now has NATO-level security protections, thanks to the Trump administration.

In an executive order signed Monday, Donald Trump pledged that the tiny, energy-rich, non-NATO ally would receive the same level of protection from the United States as some of America’s most powerful allies.

The order specifies, “The United States shall regard any armed attack on the territory, sovereignty, or critical infrastructure of the State of Qatar as a threat to the peace and security of the United States.” It further reads that, in the event of such an attack, the U.S. will undertake “diplomatic, economic, and, if necessary, military” measures to defend both America and Qatar.

The strengthened alliance comes weeks after Trump effectively permitted an Israeli strike on the Middle Eastern nation. America’s failure to take action to stop Israel’s attack left those in the Qatari capital with a sense of shock and betrayal, according to CNN, especially after Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani had agreed to act as a mediator to end the war between Israel and Gaza. He later referred to Israel’s attack as “state terror,” and said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had broken “every international law” and must be “brought to justice.”

The Qatari leader’s directive followed a stateside visit by Netanyahu Monday and a Trump-organized call to Qatar, in which Netanyahu “expressed his deep regret” for killing six people in the attack, according to the White House.

Qatar and the U.S. are strategic allies: The Biden administration deemed Qatar to be a major non-NATO ally in 2022. But the Gulf nation’s attempts to sidle up to Washington became more brazen after Trump returned to office.

Just months ago, Qatar solidified a deal with the Trump Organization to build a Trump-branded golf course and a beachside project as part of a $5.5 billion development project. The tiny nation also bestowed a wildly controversial superluxury jumbo jet to Trump, all in an apparent attempt to shore up its relationship with America’s notoriously flighty leader.