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… Trump attacked Pope Leo XIV and Italian PM Giorgia Meloni today as he continues to burn bridges abroad and with Catholic voters in the US heading into the midterms. To Italian media Corriere: “Meloni doesn’t want to help us in this war, she doesn’t want to help us with NATO. I’m shocked by her. I thought she had courage, but I was wrong. She’s very different from what I thought.”
… Q - “She said your comments were unacceptable. Trump: She’s the one who is unacceptable.”
… On the Pope: “He doesn’t understand and he shouldn’t be talking about war because he has no idea what’s happening.”
… Politico: “Trump put Giorgia Meloni in another tight spot on Monday, but this time she hit back. The Italian PM and longtime Trump ally issued her first direct criticism of the US president since he was reelected in 2024, in an attempt to keep her traditionally Catholic voter base on side.”
… “The American leader over the weekend attacked Pope Leo XIV - who has emerged as a forceful moral critic of the US-Israeli war in Iran, denouncing it as senseless and urging peace - bringing months of simmering tensions between the WH and the pontiff into the open.”
… “Trump’s decision to pick a fight with Leo, the first American pontiff, is the latest in a series of episodes this spring that have complicated efforts by Republicans to make the case that they are tackling what voters say is their central concern this year: the rising cost of living. Some now say that Trump’s display of animosity toward Leo will further erode his support among the Catholic voters in Rust Belt states, suburbs and border counties who moved toward the GOP in the 2024 election.”
… “With the midterms more than 6 months away, it remains unclear how strongly voters will weigh Trump’s feud with the pope. White Catholics, whose support helped propel Trump to a second term, remain one of the country’s largest swing voting groups. Small shifts in their voting could have an outsize impact on competitive House and Senate races in MI, OH and WI, where they make up a significant portion of the electorate.”
… “And the Catholic vote could be important in parts of AZ and South Texas, where a heavy concentration of Latino Catholics could influence contests.”
… Meloni: “I find President Trump’s remarks about the Holy Father unacceptable. The Pope is the head of the Catholic Church, and it is right and proper that he call for peace and condemn all forms of war.”
… Deputy PM and far-right League leader Matteo Salvini - also a longtime supporter of Trump: “If anyone is working hard on the issue of peace and resolving the conflict, it’s Pope Leo. Attacking the pope, a symbol of peace and spiritual guide for billions of Catholics, doesn’t seem like a useful or intelligent thing to do.”
… Christopher Hale, Obama’s Catholic outreach director, to Meidas’s Scott Macfarlane: “Pope Leo is the most popular American, and he’s actually the most popular figure globally. He has 69% support among Republicans, 75% support among Democrats. He’s well beloved among all political stripes. I think it’s a fight Trump needs to get out of. This story is not over yet until he apologizes.”
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… NYT: “Trump ascended to office 10 years ago while publicly jousting with Pope Francis, who was routinely making headlines for the progressive Catholicism he elevated, pushing the Roman Catholic Church to focus on climate change and the rights of immigrants. The pope suggested that Trump was ‘not Christian’; Trump fired back that Francis was ‘disgraceful’.”
… “Trump capitalized on growing discontent among conservative Christians and won the WH. The chasm only further widened between the Vatican and conservative American Catholics, who often saw in Trump a champion. But Pope Leo is not Francis. For Trump, he presents a new foil at the Vatican with a markedly different standing among Catholics. As the first American pope, he has a native fluency in US politics and culture, and his leadership is supported across broad swaths of the American church.”
… “Unlike his predecessor, Leo has growing support from conservative Catholics in pews across the US. He has so significantly rebuilt the Vatican’s relationship with the American Catholic right that many in Trump’s own camp rushed to the pope’s defense. Interviews with conservatives attending Mass at Catholic parishes across the country revealed significant displeasure with the president for his harsh criticism of the pope, a dynamic hard to imagine not long ago.”
… Reuters: “Pope Leo paid homage to his spiritual roots on Tuesday, traveling to the ancient birthplace in Algeria of St. Augustine of Hippo, who inspired him to become a priest. Augustine, who died in the year 430, said wars should only be waged in order to defend against aggression or protect the innocent, with the intention of restoring a state of peace and never out of a desire for cruelty.”
… Pope Leo social media post today: “God’s heart is torn apart by wars, violence, injustice and lies. But our Father’s heart is not with the wicked, the arrogant, or the proud. God’s heart is with the little ones and the humble, and with them He builds up His Kingdom of love and peace day by day. Wherever there is love and service, God is there.”
… A new CBS News/YouGov poll found Trump’s approval among white voters without college degrees - which has always been the strong core of his MAGA movement - has swung from +36 early in his term to underwater at -4, a historic 40-point collapse.
… Megyn Kelly: “Trump is spiraling. He’s collapsed with the white working class. Other than Fox News boomers, there’s no one left.”
… Trump also responded to criticism from MAGA podcaster and Fox contributor Riley Gaines about his Trump Jesus meme in an interview with ABC: “I don’t listen to Riley Gaines. I’m not a big fan of Riley, actually.”
… Gaines responded: “I do nothing for the approval of man. Our purpose on this earth is to glorify Him in all we do. The Truth Social post missed the mark. It’s now deleted. We’re imperfect people. I know I am. I don’t get my feelings hurt easy and I know with the President it’s really not personal. I want to spend eternity in a real place called Heaven. I’d love for Trump to be there too.”
… Mike Johnson was asked about Trump’s Jesus post. He looked down at his phone while running away and stammering: “I don’t think Trump thought it was sacrilegious at all. I think he showed great respect to others by removing it.”
… JD Vance was asked about it on Fox: Q - “I wonder as a Catholic how you consider this picture which a lot of people took as the president posting a picture of himself as Jesus? Vance: I think the president was posting a joke and, of course, he took it down because he recognized that a lot of people weren’t understanding his humor in that case.”
… NYT: “Trump’s erratic behavior and extreme comments in recent days and weeks have turbocharged the crazy-like-a-fox-or-just-plain-crazy debate. A series of disjointed, hard-to-follow and sometimes-profane statements capped by his ‘a whole civilization will die tonight’ threat to wipe Iran off the map last week and his head-spinning attack on the ‘WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy’ pope have left many with the impression of a deranged autocrat mad with power.”
… “Democrats who have long challenged Trump’s psychological fitness have issued a fresh chorus of calls to invoke the 25th Amend to remove the president from power for disability. But it is not just a concern voiced by partisans on the left, late-night comics or mental health professionals. It can be heard now among retired generals, diplomats and foreign officials. And most strikingly, it can be heard now on the political right among onetime allies of the president.”
… Dr. Oz on Don Jr’s podcast described a recent meeting with Trump: “Your dad argued that diet soda is good for him because it kills grass if it is poured on it, so therefore it must cure cancer cells inside the body. I thought to myself, ‘I don’t want to argue this with you right now’.”
… Arnaud Bertrand on Trump’s staged photo op with Door Dash Grandma at the WH: “The most fucked up aspect of this is the ‘DoorDash grandma’ t-shirt she’s wearing, and the implications of this: I checked and this is a pre-organized PR stunt between DoorDash and the WH - they boast about it on their website. The lady - Sharon Simmons, ‘a grandmother of 10’ who has ‘completed more than 14,000 deliveries’ - isn’t even from DC, they brought her over from Arkansas as a prop for this.”
… “Think about just how uniquely rotten things need to be in order for this to happen.
She is literally a grandmother relying on gig work because she can’t afford healthcare for her husband’s stage-3 cancer. She doesn’t even get paid a living wage and needs to rely on tips. And as an ‘independent contractor,’ she gets no benefits, no healthcare, no retirement.”
…. “Which means she is an almost perfect illustration of the failure of the American social contract on almost every level: healthcare, labor rights, retirement, wages, etc. Any decent human being looking at her story - let alone policymakers - should feel only one thing: shame. Yet DoorDash and the WH looked at this woman and saw a photo op.”
… “They flew her from AR, branded her ‘DoorDash grandma’ and used her as a mascot for a tax tweak - no tax on tips - that wouldn’t even begin to cover her husband’s chemo sessions. Watching the actual video of her ‘delivery’ to Trump is almost unreal. Trump opens up by saying, smiling at the camera, ‘who says it looks staged? It doesn’t.’ They immediately proceed to do a joint press conference to a bunch of journalists who were conveniently standing right there.”
… “None of the questions that follow during the next 15 minutes are related to Simmons’ situation who just stands there. Journalists, the President, and cameras all obsessing over culture wars and the actual war in Iran, while the walking embodiment of the country’s deepest structural failures - healthcare, labor, retirement - stands silently in a corporate t-shirt, unmentioned and too uncomfortable to confront.”
… Reuters: Today’s high oil prices do not reflect the gravity of the threat to global energy markets from the Iran war and could rise much higher if the Strait of Hormuz does not re-open, Fatih Birol, the head of the International Energy Agency, said on Tuesday: “The prices do not reflect the current situation we are in.”
… Energy Secretary Chris Wright on Fox: Q - “When can Americans expect lower prices? Wright: We’re gonna see energy prices high and even rising until we get meaningful ship traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. It will take some time.”
… Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) on Fox. Host: “Oil prices are up 50% in the last month. Scott: Well, they’re still lower than they were under President Biden, so that’s good news. We can thank President Trump.”
… Gas prices spiked globally after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But Republicans always blame Biden not Putin.
… Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS) on Newsmax: Q - “How long do you think Americans will be willing to pay the higher energy costs? Marshall: I think back to my grandparents and their generation that served in WWII. Could you imagine telling the president, ‘You only got so many days to defeat Hitler?’”
… Marshall: “I’m sorry that gas prices are going up, but help is on the way, and your national security is even more important than your pocketbook.”
… WH economic advisor Kevin Hassett on CNBC: “While it’s very frustrating to go the pump and see what the price of gas looks like, the benefit for oil producers and workers in those industries is significant enough that the GDP effect in the US is much smaller than anything you would see if you look say in Asia.”
… Cool, the multinational oil companies are making big money while American consumers pay more for everything. Because priorities.
Reminder there is no Bulletin tomorrow because I do my weekly podcast Uncovered where we do a deep dive into the top stories happening right now. We’ve been doing the show for 3 years now and have a steady audience each week of about 200,000 viewers on YouTube and many more on Apple audio podcasts. Thank you to all who watch!
If you missed yesterday’s Bulletin, which averages 400,000 readers a day, you can find that here. Thank you for reading, sharing and subscribing to my work.
… NYT: “Even before Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) stepped onstage in the auditorium at the suburban Mahopac H.S. on Sunday evening, it was clear that some of his constituents were primed for a confrontation with the congressman who is among his party’s most politically vulnerable incumbents.”
… “What unfolded over the next two hours was an at-times combative session marked by frequent interruptions; competing bursts of applause and jeers; and repeated attempts by Lawler to justify or distance himself from Trump’s handling of the war in Iran. It captured how the conflict has created a worst-case political scenario for ...
