Fox News host Sean Hannity spent Thursday attacking Pope Leo XIV on both his radio and television programmes, accusing the head of the Roman Catholic Church of political bias for criticising Donald Trump’s war with Iran — and the response online was swift and merciless.
The radio salvo
On his radio show, Hannity framed the pope’s moral objections to the Iran conflict as “selective outrage” and accused Leo of “seemingly enjoying this public fight with Donald Trump.” He then made an offer that quickly circulated across social media: that he, personally, should be the one to interview the pontiff.
“Nobody gets to ask the pope a single thing. And I think it’s time and I would like to offer myself as the person to go interview the pope. I think I’m uniquely qualified. I studied Latin, theology, went to Catholic Church for 12 years.”
— Sean Hannity, radio broadcast
The television escalation
That evening on his Fox News programme, Hannity pushed further. He accused Leo of being “seemingly more interested in spreading left-wing politics than the actual teachings of Jesus Christ” and took direct theological issue with a papal statement that “God does not bless any conflict and certainly doesn’t side with those who drop bombs.”
Hannity argued the statement was “simply not biblically accurate,” citing the Bible’s more than 400 references to war, including the story of David and Goliath, as evidence that God has historically authorised and intervened in armed conflict. He closed by suggesting the pope was nothing more than a “run-of-the-mill Trump-hating Democrat.”
“Why is the pope twisting religion to specifically attack only President Trump and the US?”
— Sean Hannity, Fox News
The reaction
Critics responded rapidly, with widespread disbelief at a cable news host attempting to correct the leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics on scripture and moral theology. The segments drew particular attention as another instance of a MAGA- aligned media figure treating religious authority as subordinate to political loyalty — a pattern that observers say has become a defining feature of the current media landscape.
The feud sits within a broader tension between Trump and Leo XIV, who has become one of the more outspoken international voices opposing the US’s military campaign in Iran. Trump has responded to the pope’s criticism with repeated public complaints, with Hannity serving as one of his most prominent defenders in the media.