Trump willing to meet with Pope Leo, responds to Catholic leader's criticism of immigration policies

By Ryan Foley, Christian Post Reporter Thursday, December 11, 2025

President Donald Trump said he remains open to meeting with Pope Leo XIV and insisted he wasn't aware of the pontiff's comments expressing disagreement with his immigration policies. 

In an interview with Trump broadcast on Tuesday, Politico’s Dasha Burns asked the president to weigh in on the pope's characterization of his immigration policies as “inhumane.” Trump insisted he hadn't heard the comments before launching into a defense of his policies to combat illegal immigration that went largely unenforced under his predecessor, former President Joe Biden. 

“I haven’t heard any statements from the pope,” he said. “I’m sure he’s a lovely man. His brother’s a lovely man.”

Trump praised Leo’s brother as “serious MAGA,” recalling how he met with him at the White House shortly after his brother was elected the 267th pope of the Roman Catholic Church earlier this year. The term “MAGA” is an acronym for Trump’s signature campaign slogan of Make America Great Again, and the president’s characterization of Louis Prevost reflects the fact that the pontiff’s brother is a supporter of his.

When asked by Politico if he would be willing to meet with the pope, Trump replied, “Sure I will, why not?” 

The comments Leo made about Trump’s immigration policies that Politico mentioned during the interview were in response to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ “Special Message” on immigration published last month, which expressed concern about the Trump administration’s immigration policies. “We have to look for ways of treating people humanely, treating people with the dignity that they have,” the pontiff asserted in response to a reporter's question at the time.  

“If people are in the United States illegally, there are ways to treat that,” the pontiff asserted. “There are courts; there’s a system of justice. I think there are a lot of problems in the system. No one has said that the United States should have open borders. I think every country has a right to determine who and how and when people enter.”

However, Leo also shared his disapproval of what he described as the “extremely disrespectful” treatment of illegal immigrants “who are living good lives and many of them for 10- 15- 20-years” in the U.S.

The USCCB offered a scathing assessment of U.S. immigration policy under Trump in their statement, condemning what they referred to as “a climate of fear and anxiety around questions of profiling and immigration enforcement” and the “indiscriminate mass deportation of people.”  

The pope’s response to the USCCB’s rebuke of the Trump administration's immigration policies wasn't the first time the Catholic leader has weighed in on the divisive political issue.

A month earlier, Leo suggested that “someone who says that I’m against abortion but I’m in agreement with the inhuman treatment of [illegal] immigrants who are in the United States” is not “pro-life.” 

While Trump met with the late Pope Francis at the Vatican during his first term in 2017, Trump has yet to meet with Leo. A native of Chicago, Illinois, Robert Prevost became the first U.S.-born pope in world history following Francis’ death in April. Prevost took the name Leo XIV upon his election to the papacy in May.

Trump had previously expressed a willingness to meet with the newly-elected pontiff in July, indicating that while he had no plans to do so at the time, he “would do it.” He also mentioned the pontiff’s brother in his previous remarks, saying, “I like the pope’s brother, and I think I’d like the pope.”