Pastor Robert Jeffress, senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas and one of President Donald Trump's most prominent evangelical allies, made a striking assertion on Fox News on Saturday, claiming that Trump appeared to have 'a better understanding of what the Bible teaches than the Pope.' The remark came as relations between the White House and the Vatican remained at one of their lowest points in recent memory.

Appearing on Fox News, Jeffress said he had been present in the Oval Office with Trump just three days after the president launched the US-Israeli attack on Iran. The segment was shared directly by Jeffress on his own verifiedX account, where he posted the Fox News clip discussing 'the Pope, the President, and UFOs.' Speaking on air, Jeffress said the visit left him with the clear impression that the president was more biblically grounded than Pope Leo XIV on matters of government.

Jeffress framed his defence of Trump in explicitly scriptural terms, drawing a sharp line between the missions of the church and the state. 'The pope ought to know and I think he does know, God created both the church and government for two distinct purposes,' he told Fox News. 'The role of the church is to point people to faith in Jesus Christ, but the role of government is to protect citizens from evil-doers.'

He stopped short of dismissing the pontiff entirely. 'The pope is a good man, he's sincere in his faith,' Jeffress said, 'but he is sincerely wrong when it comes to Iran.' He then delivered his sharpest line of the segment: 'The great irony is it looks like President Trump has a better understanding of what the Bible teaches about the role of government than the pope has! And I'm glad the president hasn't backed down at all.'

The comments landed as Trump's public dispute with Pope Leo XIV was already deepening. Speaking on 'The Hugh Hewitt Show' on 4 May, Trumpaccusedthe pontiff of being sympathetic to Iran obtaining nuclear weapons. 'The pope would rather talk about the fact that it's OK for Iran to have a nuclear weapon,' Trump said. 'I don't think that's very good. I think he's endangering a lot of Catholics and a lot of people.' In an earlier April Truth Socialpost, Trump had called Leo 'WEAK on Crime' and accused him of 'catering to the Radical Left.'

WATCH my segment on@FoxNewsdiscussing the Pope, the President, and UFOs!pic.twitter.com/zvGsze4atI

The tensions between Trump and Pope Leo XIV did not emerge overnight. The first major flashpoint came in October 2025, when Leosaidthat someone who opposes abortion but supports the 'inhuman treatment of immigrants in the United States' cannot truly be called pro-life, drawing an immediate pushback from the White House. Speaking outside his Castel Gandolfo retreat on 4 November 2025, the pope went further,sayingthat 'many people who've lived for years and years and years, never causing problems, have been deeply affected by what's going on right now,' citing scripture to remind Catholics that their faith calls for welcoming strangers.

The rift widened in June 2025, when Leo condemned the US-Israeli strikes on Iranian nuclear sites during his 22 June Sunday Angelus address,saying'alarming news continues to emerge from the Middle East, especially from Iran.' He also posted directly on X via the officialPontifex account, writing that 'War does not solve problems; on the contrary, it amplifies them and inflicts deep wounds on the history of peoples, which take generations to heal.'

Leo has continued to hold firm. Speaking to reporters as he departed Castel Gandolfo on 5 May 2026, the pontiffrespondeddirectly to Trump's nuclear accusations, saying 'for years, the Church has spoken out against all nuclear weapons, so there is no doubt on that point,' and adding that anyone wishing to criticise him should 'do so truthfully.'

Jeffress is no peripheral figure in American evangelical politics. A Fox News contributor and senior pastor of the 14,000-member First Baptist Church in Dallas, he has been one of Trump's most visible religious supporters since 2016. TrumpnamedJeffress as a member of his Evangelical Advisory Board in June 2016, and he preached at Trump's private inauguration service at St John's Episcopal Church in January 2017. He has remained a consistent White House presence across both terms.

Source: International Business Times UK