{"id":588997,"date":"2025-11-23T15:32:14","date_gmt":"2025-11-23T15:32:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/588997\/"},"modified":"2025-11-23T15:32:14","modified_gmt":"2025-11-23T15:32:14","slug":"who-can-tame-trump-an-unlikely-candidate-is-emerging-the-catholic-church-simon-tisdall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/588997\/","title":{"rendered":"Who can tame Trump? An unlikely candidate is emerging: the Catholic church | Simon Tisdall"},"content":{"rendered":"

The supreme court can\u2019t do it<\/a> \u2013 it\u2019s packed with conservatives who owe him their jobs. Congress won\u2019t do it \u2013 Republicans slavishly follow his orders, Democrats are ill-led and divided. For today\u2019s White House, the concept of constitutional limits on executive power is a quaint relic. The news media, or sections of it, does its best amid constant legal threats. But, too often, they pay him off<\/a>. Brave reporters who insist on asking awkward questions are insulted or silenced: \u201cQuiet, piggy.<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n

So who will tame Donald Trump? Who will halt his rolling constitutional coup \u2013 his ongoing evisceration of US democracy<\/a>, civil rights, living standards, global reputation and moral integrity? Voters may try to indirectly rein him back in next November\u2019s midterms (as they did recently in New York<\/a> and elsewhere). But those elections are a year away. The emergency is today.<\/p>\n

What the US urgently needs now, metaphorically speaking, is a national champion, a sort of modern-day Saint George to slay the dragon, save the people and ensure the triumph of good over evil. Who, in reality, might fill this role of moral saviour?<\/p>\n

Step forward Leo XIV, the \u201cAmerican pope\u201d, backed by the US conference of Catholic bishops and the clergy and grassroots activists of the Catholic church \u2013 unexpected, newly emerging standard-bearers for country-wide resistance to the Trumpist scourge. The bishops threw down the gauntlet in a \u201cspecial message\u201d<\/a> this month. Inequality, immigration and civil rights are the battlegrounds on which the church, and some other Christian denominations, have begun to fight.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe oppose the indiscriminate mass deportation of people. We pray for an end to dehumanising rhetoric and violence,\u201d the statement said. Citing the brutal tactics of immigration and customs enforcement (ICE) agents, the bishops deplored the \u201cclimate of fear\u201d created by Trump\u2019s policies, the profiling of vulnerable citizens, shocking conditions in detention centres and lack of access to pastoral care.<\/p>\n

Expressing a view, rooted in scripture, that Britain\u2019s Labour government and other western countries would do well to heed, they went on: \u201cWe recognise that nations have a responsibility to regulate their borders and establish a just and orderly immigration system for the sake of the common good.\u201d But creating safe and legal pathways for migrants was the preferable, ethical solution. Human dignity and national security were not in conflict, they said.<\/p>\n

Chicago-born Leo, increasingly outspoken in opposing Trump\u2019s \u201cinhuman\u201d policies<\/a> since his election in May, now stands at the head of this clerical revolt<\/a>. Earlier this month, he demanded ICE rethink its demonisation of migrants \u2013 more than 2 million \u201cillegal aliens\u201d have been involuntarily removed this year and record numbers detained, official figures indicate<\/a>. He criticised lethal US strikes<\/a> on suspected drug smugglers off Venezuela, warning violence would fail. And he has challenged Trump\u2019s climate-crisis denial, telling Cop30 that God\u2019s creation is \u201ccrying out\u201d for action<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Organised opposition to Trump among Catholic and other faith groups<\/a> on the \u201cChristian left\u201d is spreading at grassroots level. From New Jersey to California, parish priests and pastors have led local protests, boycotts and initiatives to counter ICE\u2019s depredations. \u201cCatholics are particularly well positioned to lead such a movement,\u201d wrote Maria J Stephan<\/a>, a specialist in non-violent civil resistance.<\/p>\n

About 22% of US adults identify as Catholic<\/a> and more than four in 10 are immigrants or children of immigrants<\/a>. \u201cMany Catholics are likely among those now living in fear of masked agents abducting them in unmarked cars to detention centres \u2026 Meanwhile, close to three million black Catholics are experiencing attacks on the voting rights act and the weakening of civil rights protections,\u201d Stephan wrote.<\/p>\n

The church has also launched assaults on Trump\u2019s signature fiscal legislation, accusing him of \u201cunconscionable\u201d cuts in healthcare and food assistance, and unjustifiable tax breaks for the better-off. \u201cCatholic teaching compels the faithful to uphold human dignity. It is hard to conceive of the law as promoting the sanctity of every life when it cuts key programs for the needy and expands tax cuts to the wealthy,\u201d wrote Wheaton College professor of public theology Esau McCaulley<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Catholics, like other US religious groups, are far from united in opposing Trump. He won 55% of Catholic votes<\/a> last year, although support has since dropped sharply. Conservative critics have lampooned Leo as the \u201cwoke pope\u201d<\/a> \u2013 a reminder that on abortion and other issues, the Catholic hierarchy often takes an anti-progressive, reactionary stance<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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More broadly, Christian nationalists and fundamentalists have allied with Trump<\/a> and authoritarian rightwing populists in Britain and Europe to co-opt, politicise and weaponise religious belief. As in the secular sphere, the divide is stark. \u201cChristian nationalism is particular rather than universal. It is about protecting \u2018us\u2019 against \u2018them\u2019 \u2013 the native versus the immigrant. It is about power more than love. It is about threat more than hope,\u201d wrote commentator David Brooks<\/a>. He could have been talking about Maga \u2013 or Reform UK.<\/p>\n

Increasingly erratic dictatorial behaviour, violent nihilism, exploitative religious hypocrisy and blatant corruption: this is the challenge facing the US and the world. Is Leo, speaking up for human dignity, decency and faith, the leader whose hour has come? He\u2019s 70. He has the job for life. Trump has three years left in office. If he chooses to use it, Leo has the moral authority, political savvy and international standing to confront Trump<\/a>, to positive effect, on poverty, inequality, migrants, civil rights, Russia, Palestine and other pressing issues.<\/p>\n

The American pope could do what others manifestly cannot: shame and tame the monster. To do so, he needs what Trump\u2019s nemesis, the late Pope Francis, prayed for<\/a>: the support not only of Catholics, but of \u201call men and women of good will\u201d. That, and maybe a small miracle, too. After all, brave Saint George was martyred.<\/p>\n

This article was amended on 23 November 2025. An earlier picture caption said that Pope Leo XI was with \u201cUS vice-president Marco Rubio\u201d; that should have said JD Vance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The supreme court can\u2019t do it \u2013 it\u2019s packed with conservatives who owe him their jobs. Congress won\u2019t…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":588998,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[12,26],"class_list":{"0":"post-588997","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-news","9":"tag-world"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115599739769976457","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588997","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=588997"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588997\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/588998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=588997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=588997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=588997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}