President Donald Trump on Wednesday reacted to the news that Pope Leo XIV was recently diagnosed with cancer and had the lower lobe of his right lung surgically removed by wishing the pontiff well — and then using that opportunity to congratulate himself.
Trump was taking questions from reporters at Laughlin Bullhead International Airport in Arizona and was asked if he had anything to say about the matter, following a formal announcement Tuesday by the Vatican that has prompted global well-wishes for the pope to swiftly recover.
“I want to see Pope Leo get well,” Trump said Wednesday. “I hear the prognosis for that type of a problem — it’s cancer, it’s big stuff anytime you have cancer — but the prognosis seems to be good. I’ve watched, and we just want to wish him our love and our best wishes.”
He continued, “His brother’s a friend of mine, he’s a great — he’s a fantastic guy. And his wife, you know, they’re big Trump supporters. They have MAGA all over their house, and I can say that his brother loves him a lot, loves the pope a lot, and that’s good. Good enough for me.”
Pope Leo XIV was diagnosed with pulmonary adenocarcinoma, a common type of lung cancer, and has canceled all public events until Oct. 20. The Vatican on Tuesday did not say which stage his cancer had reached but noted surgery was “completed successfully.”
“Pope Leo is WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy,” Trump wrote in April, adding: “I like his brother Louis much better than I like him, because Louis is all MAGA. He gets it, and Leo doesn’t! I don’t want a Pope who thinks it’s OK for Iran to have a Nuclear Weapon.”
He further argued in his post, “If I wasn’t in the White House, Leo wouldn’t be in the Vatican.”
Trump has found support in the pontiff’s brother Louis Prevost, who has praised the MAGA movement on social media and met with Trump at the White House after Pope Leo XIV was elected. Prevost has also publicly attacked Democrats and the transgender community.
Last year, Prevost shared a video calling former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi the c-word.
“Did you know that he lives in Florida?” Trump told reporters ahead of their White House meeting in May 2025. “He’s got MAGA, he’s got Trump, and I look forward to getting him to the White House. I want to shake his hand. I want to give him a big hug.”