Trump hit with unusually blunt statement from priest in president's own backyard

The Catholic Church is not done with Donald Trump.

Just as the president appeared to dial back his attacks on Pope Leo XIV, the Bishop of Palm Beach — whose diocese includes Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate — issued a scathing public scolding of Trump's "disrespectful and violent attacks" on the pontiff.

According to The Daily Beast, Bishop Manuel de Jesús Rodríguez, installed in his post by Pope Leo in December, issued an unusually blunt statement on Sunday that frames Trump's conduct as a constitutional violation.

"The Diocese of Palm Beach stands firm with our Holy Father, Pope Leo XIV, and strongly rejects the disrespectful and violent attacks that Donald J. Trump has directed against the Holy Father," the bishop wrote.

The bishop went further, asserting that Trump's attacks on the Pope violate constitutional protections. "These attacks also constitute a grave violation of the religious freedom enshrined in the Constitution of the United States and, as such, harm the rights of the American Catholic faithful."

"Please pray for the safety of the Holy Father," the statement concluded — a warning that carries particular weight coming from a bishop overseeing the area where Trump maintains his primary residence.

The feud began with Trump's original attack on the Pope for criticizing his unprovoked Iran war. Vice President JD Vance then escalated things by admonishing the pontiff to stick to matters of "morality" — effectively telling the Pope to stay out of geopolitical affairs.

The bishop's intervention carries added symbolic weight given his personal history. Rodríguez previously served in the Catholic church diocese in Queens, New York — roughly seven miles from where Trump was raised — making this a rebuke from a spiritual leader with geographic ties to the president's own background.