CBS News’ Norah O’Donnell Details Confrontation With Trump Over Pope Leo Feud
What To Know
- Norah O’Donnell revealed she spoke with Donald Trump in a phone interview amid his controversy with Pope Leo XIV.
- She revealed what went down during her confrontation with the president, including his explanation of why he took down an AI-generated photo of himself depicted as Jesus.
- Trump also told O’Donnell whether he plans to reach out to the pope directly.
After Donald Trump posted a lengthy Truth Social message calling out Pope Leo XIV for denouncing the war in Iran, CBS News correspondent Norah O’Donnell spoke to the president directly to confront him about the drama.
O’Donnell conducted a phone interview with Trump, during which he confirmed that he watched Sunday’s 60 Minutes segment about the pope’s disapproval of him. Trump told O’Donnell that he has “no” plans to speak to the pope directly amid their war of words in the press.
“He’s wrong on the issues,” Trump insisted. “I don’t think he should be getting into politics. I think he probably learned that from this.” He also admitted he has “no idea” if Pope Leo will visit the United States amid the Trump presidency. “It’s up to him, not up to me,” Trump explained.
Trump also explained his decision to post an AI-generated photo of himself as Jesus Christ, which ultimately received backlash even from his supporters, including Riley Gaines.
“I viewed that as a picture of me being a doctor in fixing,” Trump revealed. “You had the Red Cross right there, you had, you know, medical people surrounding me. And I was like the doctor, you know, as a little fun, playing the doctor and making people better. So that’s what it was viewed as. That’s what most people thought.”
However, Trump ultimately took the image down from this Truth Social account after it caused a stir. “Normally I don’t like doing that,” he admitted. “But I didn’t want to have anybody be confused. People were confused.”
He made it clear, though, that his decision to take the image down had nothing to do with criticism from Gaines and others online. “I didn’t listen to Riley Gaines,” Trump said. “I’m not a big fan of Riley, actually.”
Meanwhile, Pope Leo condemned Trump for posting the photo and told reporters on Monday, “I have no fear of the Trump administration, or speaking out loudly of the message of the Gospel, which is what I believe I am here to do, what the church is here to do. We are not politicians, we don’t deal with foreign policy with the same perspective he might understand it, but I do believe in the message of the Gospel, as a peacemaker.”
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