{{current_date_full}}

🤳 Want to text me? Join me on Subtext in two steps:
1) Become a Newsweek member 2) Join Subtext here

Good morning, 

We're at the park yesterday, enjoying the beautiful weather, and I'm shooting the breeze with the Nanny Gang, a group of older West Indian women who raise the little white children of Brownstone Brooklyn. It's always fun to talk to these ladies about politics because they have a lot of heterodox views you wouldn't expect, including a fair amount of social conservatism from their religious upbringings in countries like Grenada, Trinidad, Jamaica, etc. But these women could not get over the fact that President Trump was feuding with Pope Leo.

"What is wrong with that man?" one nanny asked me (about POTUS, not the pope).

This fight that the White House picked with the Vatican has broken through the noise in a way that not all of Trump's daily offenses do anymore. It's more proof of my theory that Trump badly needs a foil to be effective, and when he doesn't have a worthy one he flails around and gets himself into these idiotic jams of his own making. That's one of the markers of this term, the lack of a foil. Going back to the days of Low-Energy Jeb during the 2016 primary, one of Trump's strengths has always been identifying an opponent who contrasts and therefore emphasizes his own qualities of political persuasion. Barack HUSSEIN Obama, Crooked Hillary, Lyin' Ted, Sleepy Joe, Crazy Nancy Pelosi... all these people presented worthy foils for our president's particular brand of populism. But now that he's vanquished them all, and sits atop the mountain, he's got no one with whom to do battle. Cryin' Chuck Schumer? Hakeem Jeffries? Please, they are no match for him. So, he goes looking for a new foil and ends up with... the widely beloved pope from Chicago. And like any Bobby you'd find on the South Side, this pope is proving that he doesn't have patience for Trump's brand of B.S.

Trump has tussled with the Bishop of Rome before, notably calling Pope Francis "disgraceful" after Frank not-so-subtly suggested Trump was not a real Christian. Leo is a different kind of pope, though. For one thing, he's American, so he's fluent in our brand of insane politics, and thus able to clock a bully like Trump in a way his Argentinian predecessor could not — and also knows that the way you deal with bullies is by confronting them.

But Leo's young papacy is also shaping up to be much different in substance. He's more conservative, more paternalistic, more traditional, and — at least for now — more popular among Catholics, especially the conservative Catholics who happen to make up a chunk of Trump's incredibly shrinking base. Trump, knowing nothing about the Church or the gospel by virtue of being a godless heathen from New York, probably doesn't grasp this. But the Nanny Gang does. And many other Christians do, too. Messing with the pope is a bridge too far for these folks.

This particular spat began with Pope Leo's completely fair criticism of the war in Iran. The pope criticizing a war of choice should not be especially shocking. But because this White House is so undisciplined, they couldn't just let it lie. Instead, Trump lashed out by calling Leo "terrible for foreign policy" and "WEAK ON CRIME," which is honestly one of the funniest things you could say about a pope. Leo, to his great credit, did not back down, telling reporters he had "no fear of the Trump administration."

In the middle of his other recent feats of sacrilege and blasphemy, from his Allah Akbar Easter message to his Trump-as-Christ AI meme (It wasn't Jesus, it was a doctor!), the president decided to dispatch shit-eater extraordinaire JD Vance to continue the fight, probably since Vance is Catholic. Or at least has been Catholic since it became expedient for his political career, roughly around 2019.

At a poorly-attended TPUSA event last night in Georgia, Vance warned Leo that if he was "going to opine on matters of theology,” then his comments needed to be "anchored in the truth." Imagine the gall it would take to go on stage and tell the pope how he should "opine on theology." Vance was calling himself an atheist until a few years ago, and now he's mansplaining Catholicism to the literal Vicar of Christ. This guy's ability to find new ways of humiliating himself is really turning into one of the better side plots of the Trump 2 implosion.

To be fair to Vance for a second, he was speaking specifically about Leo's comments that followers of Christ are "never on the side of those who once wielded the sword and today drop bombs.” The veep was basically saying that wars can in fact be just, and that the Church has in fact been on the side of the warrior (see: Crusades). “Was God on the side of the Americans who liberated France from the Nazis?” the VP countered.

But this goes back to the entire problem with this debacle in Iran. They never sold it as a "just" conflict! If we're supposed to think of the Iranian theocracy like the Nazis, which itself is absurd, then why is Trump talking about cutting deals with the regime? Did Churchill cut a deal with Hitler? Can you call this a "just" war when we're the side talking about wiping out an entire civilization? When we're the ones incinerating schoolgirls at their desks? When our Israeli partners are acting like genocidal lunatics? It's completely appropriate for the leader of the Catholic Church and its 1.4B members to call this war out for being unjust. Because it is! And the Trump admin hasn't ever bothered to make the case that it isn't, except now in this half-hearted, ex post facto way.

I'll be talking about all this later today with Christopher Hale, the author of the excellent Letters From Leo Substack, which broke the news that the White House had been so bellicose toward the Vatican behind closed doors that it kept the pope from traveling back home this year. I asked on Subtext for people to send in their Qs for Hale, so if you guys have any please get them to me before noon, please.

We've also got a new episode on the feed this morning featuring my discussion with Nick Berg, an Iranian-American author and dissident who actually does believe this is a just war. I didn't agree with him, but thought it was good to get this perspective on the record. And if you didn't catch my convo with Mike Madrid about how Latinos are the only real swing voters left in America, and how neither party has figured out how to speak to them, that was illuminating as well. Bookmark our YouTube playlist to get all these episodes as they drop, usually on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

Sign up for The 1600 in one click here. 🔔

Carlo Versano is Newsweek's Director of Politics and Culture. He has in-depth knowledge and experience covering a range of topics and stories over a 20-year career in the news business. Carlo joined Newsweek in 2024 after a stint at The Messenger. Before that, he was an Emmy-winning producer at NBC News. He is a graduate of the University of Richmond and the New School. You can get in touch with Carlo by emailing [email protected].

Subscribe to the 1600 Podcast 🔔
YouTube
Apple
Spotify
iHeartRadio

Carlo speaks with Shadows of Tehran author Nick Berg to unpack the realities behind the headlines of the war with Iran.

Watch the latest episode here. ⬅

By Carlo Versano and Hugh Cameron

America has always been a land of grifters. Inside dealers, pay-to-play schemers, elected officials in both parties whose investment portfolios had an uncanny habit of outperforming the market. What’s new about that? Let’s start with the brazenness. The almost performative shamelessness of it. As though the old norms didn’t just erode but were suddenly bulldozed away, like the remnants of a wing of the White House: visible for all to see, if not publicly debate.  

Welcome to the golden era of corruption. Bring cash. Or, better yet, well-timed futures contracts. 

On Tuesday, I covered a brief photo opportunity between Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Egypt’s Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty.

Only four journalists were in the room, with the rest made up of photographers and camera crews.

I was hoping Rubio would take my question, especially since he answered one of mine last week on Cuba.

This time, he ignored my question. I shouted: “Mister Secretary, what did the President mean when he said we may stop by Cuba next? Does that mean military action? Does that mean military action in Cuba?”

No response.

In terms of substance, the State Department said the two officials discussed the Iran ceasefire and the importance of securing long term peace in the Middle East.

Rubio also stressed ongoing U.S. and Egyptian efforts to reach a humanitarian truce in Sudan, and the need to advance efforts to disarm Hamas.

As one of the sole reporters at Newsweek who actually cares about the World Cup, what I've witnessed unfold has been nothing short of discouraging. Some days, I find myself wishing I were more like the typical American sports fan, someone who can shrug and move on. But I can't.

The latest disappointment comes courtesy of NJ Transit, which is reportedly planning to charge World Cup attendees over $100 for round-trip train tickets from Penn Station to MetLife Stadium, a dramatic increase from the usual $12.90 fare, with no discounts for seniors, children, or disabled passengers.

New Jersey officials have publicly insisted they would not saddle taxpayers with the World Cup's operational burden. In other words, they would keep costs off resident taxpayers by passing them to visitors instead.

Meanwhile, as the tournament approaches, several host cities are backing away from original commitments, like hosting Fan Fests, while at the same time prohibiting the traditional NFL tailgating culture of pre-game grilling and parking lot gatherings. If the goal was to grow soccer in the U.S., this does the opposite.

This looks like pure greed, but the issue starts with how FIFA structured the tournament. FIFA sells a multibillion-dollar economic dream while shifting the bill to cities and states, then squeezes fans at every remaining touchpoint.

“Your dad argues that diet soda is good for him because it kills grass, if poured on grass, so, therefore, it must kill cancer cells,”

—Dr. Oz discussing President Trump's diet soda theory on Donald Trump Jr.'s podcast.

Newsweek is part of the Trust Project, which focuses on honesty, accuracy and fairness in journalism. Read more about our best practices. To get in touch with our newsroom with suggestions on how to point out possible errors, please contact us at [email protected].