Furious Pope Freezes Out Trump in Front Of World!!

Summary

Podcast Summary: The MeidasTouch Podcast

Episode: Furious Pope Freezes Out Trump in Front Of World!!
Date: February 21, 2026
Hosts: Ben, Brett, and Jordy Meiselas

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Overview

This episode centers on dramatic developments between Pope Leo XIV and the Trump-Vance administration. The Meiselas brothers dissect why Pope Leo XIV refused to participate in Trump's "Board of Peace" initiative and declined an invitation to attend America’s 250th Independence Day celebrations, sending a strong global message. The episode also amplifies escalating tensions over religious freedoms in the U.S., especially concerning Catholic services and immigrant rights under the Trump regime. With humor, clarity, and passion, the brothers explore how Pope Leo and the wider Catholic hierarchy are speaking out against political overreach and authoritarianism.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Pope Leo XIV Publicly Rebukes Trump and the Board of Peace

• [01:50] Ben opens with the breaking news: Pope Leo XIV formally rejects any Vatican involvement in Trump’s Board of Peace, calling it a “colonialist operation.”
  • Quote: “Pope Leo the 14th has labeled [it] a colonialist operation, saying no thank you, I don't want to be anywhere near that.” — Host ([01:55])
• Pope Leo also rejects the Trump administration’s invitation to attend the 250th Independence Day celebrations, delivered in person by VP JD Vance.
• Instead, the Pope will spend July 4th on Lampedusa, a migrant gateway in the Mediterranean, emphasizing his solidarity with migrants and refugees.

2. The Vatican’s Strategic Message

• [02:45] The Pope's focus on Lampedusa and migrants is interpreted as a rebuke of U.S. and European anti-immigrant policies.
  • Quote: “[The Pope is] saying that I'm going to be spending my time with migrants...showing that we are one world and we are one people.” — Host ([02:45])
• The Vatican, under Pope Leo, rallies global clergy against the Trump regime’s actions, particularly around restriction of Catholic rites and immigrant religious freedoms in the U.S.

3. Religious Rights Under Threat in the U.S.

• [03:55] The Trump administration has attempted to ban Ash Wednesday services and prevent clergy from entering detention centers, such as Broadview in Chicago.
• Legal battles ensue, with federal courts ruling in favor of religious access and free exercise for detained migrants.
  • Quote: “A federal judge said, hey, you know, there's a free exercise clause in the Constitution…The government is infringing upon the rights of migrants.” — Host ([04:55])
• Despite court orders, Trump officials almost defy Ash Wednesday access—creating a potential historic standoff between Church and State.

4. Internal Church Critique of Trump Administration

• [10:10] Even conservative Cardinal Timothy Dolan is outspoken about anti-immigrant policies and direct harassment of churches.
  • [11:18] Quote: “ICE would show up on Sunday Mass just in trucks and cars and the people wouldn't come…This is a violation of religious freedom. People have the right to worship on the Sabbath.” — Cardinal Dolan ([11:18])
• JD Vance forced to apologize to Dolan for falsely accusing bishops of benefiting financially from migrant programs.
  • [12:10] Quote: “[Vance] suggested that bishops in the United States were pro immigrant because we were making money, which I said was not only untrue, it was scurrilous. And he apologized.” — Cardinal Dolan ([12:10])

5. Clips and Reactions: The Invitation Rebuff and Ash Wednesday

• [13:24] Audio is played depicting JD Vance’s awkward attempt to invite Pope Leo XIV—who appears uninterested and ultimately declines, prioritizing his Lampedusa visit.
• [15:03] On-the-ground audio from Illinois shows Cardinal Cupich leading Ash Wednesday mass by a migrant detention center in defiance of government pressure.

6. Right-Wing Attacks on Pope Leo XIV

• [16:01] Steve Bannon is revealed as a longtime antagonist, having conspired with Jeffrey Epstein to prevent both Pope Francis and Pope Leo XIV from ascending.
  • Bannon laments that progressive Cardinals like Prevost (now Leo XIV) threaten the Church establishment and American influence.
  • Quote: “I do think one of the dark horses, and I think unfortunately he's one of the most progressive, is Cardinal Prevost…I don't think he's getting enough play.” — Steve Bannon ([16:01])

7. Pope Leo XIV’s World Statement

• [17:27] The Pope delivers a hard-hitting speech on rising authoritarianism, war, and the collapse of international cooperation:
  • Quote: “A diplomacy that promotes dialogue is being replaced by diplomacy based on force…War is back in vogue and a zeal for war is spreading…Peace is no longer sought as a gift and a desirable good in itself.” — Pope Leo XIV ([17:27])

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Pope Leo XIV on the Board of Peace:
  ”No thank you, I don't want to be anywhere near that.” ([01:55])

• Cardinal Dolan on ICE harassment:
  “This is a violation of religious freedom. People have the right to worship on the Sabbath. The federal government cannot impede that.” ([11:18])

• JD Vance Apology:
  “He apologized. He says that was out of line, and that's not true.” — Cardinal Dolan ([12:10])

• Pope's Speech on Modern War:
  “War is back in vogue and a zeal for war is spreading. The principle...which prohibited nations from using force to violate the borders of others, has been completely undermined.” ([17:27])

• Steve Bannon’s Antipathy:
  “Unfortunately [Prevost's] one of the most progressive...he is certainly on the short list...I think it's pretty shocking...They've never really wanted to have an American Pope.” ([16:01])

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Key Timestamps

• [01:50] — Pope Leo XIV denounces Board of Peace, rejects July 4th invite
• [03:55] — U.S. attempts to block Ash Wednesday services for migrants
• [10:10] — Cardinal Dolan’s criticism of Trump administration and JD Vance
• [11:18] — Dolan recounts ICE harassment of churches
• [12:10] — JD Vance’s apology for false smears
• [13:24] — JD Vance’s awkward Vatican invitation
• [15:03] — Cardinal Cupich and clergy defy ICE, lead mass at detention center
• [16:01] — Steve Bannon's conspiracies against Pope Leo XIV
• [17:27] — Pope Leo XIV’s plea for global peace and order

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Tone & Character

• The Meiselas brothers maintain their blend of urgent fact-sharing and wry, pointed banter; they take clear sides in defense of religious liberty and democracy and against what they see as abuses of power and hypocrisy from the Trump regime.
• Emotional gravity is present when relaying statements by Pope Leo XIV and Cardinal Dolan, with the brothers often punctuating segments with personal reactions or emphasized disbelief at the administration's actions.
• There’s admiration for Pope Leo’s courageous stance and the mobilization of Catholic leadership against authoritarianism.

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Summary

This episode is a deep dive into the growing rift between the Catholic hierarchy and the Trump-Vance administration. Pope Leo XIV’s firm denouncement of the Board of Peace and prioritization of the marginalized sends ripples worldwide, while U.S. church leaders stand up for immigrant rights—even at the risk of federal backlash. Parallel efforts by right-wing actors to undermine the Pope are exposed, and the episode closes with a call to remain vigilant about the intersections of faith, power, and justice.

Transcript

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[Narrator/Host]

Pope Leo XIV is absolutely furious at Donald Trump and his despicable regime. But Pope Leo the 14th has formally rejected any involvement by himself and the Vatican in Trump's so called Board of Peace, which Pope Leo the 14th has labeled a colonialist operation, saying no thank you, I don't want to be anywhere near that. In addition, the Vatican has now confirmed that Pope Leo the 14th officially rejected the invite to show up at America's 250th day celebration on July 4th. Back in May, when JD Van showed up to the Vatican and presented a formal invitation to Pope Leo XIV, he rejected it to J.D. vance's face. And this past week the Vatican leaked out that Pope Leo XIV said absolutely no way. I'm not going he put the invitation aside and just said, I'm not going to be doing that. In fact, this week, we learned what Pope Leo XIV is doing. Hat tip to Christopher Hale, who does a great job on his substack and elsewhere, reporting on the Vatican and what's happening in the Catholic Church and especially as it asserts itself against Donald Trump and its regime. But Pope Leo XIV has announced that he will be spending the July 4 day on the island of Lampedusa, a migrant gateway in the Mediterranean. This is sending a powerful message because this remote island is kind of ground zero in what people consider the European migration issues. And he's saying that I'm going to be spending my time with migrants and individuals there and showing that we are one world and we are one people. And he said, also announced as well that there will be no plans to show up at all in the United States in 2026. He previously appeared in Chicago via, you know, at the baseball stadium there, but did not actually attend. And he has his Cardinal Cupich over there. And one of the developments that has been happening as well, and Pope Leo XIV has been rallying the cardinals and the bishops and the clergy in general to fight back against Trump and his regime. Remember, Donald Trump has they were planning on banning Ash Wednesday services. They have tried to ban religious rites or any type of religious services at the detention centers. You have the detention center, Broadview in the Chicago area, for example, had prohibited any type of Catholic priests or any religious clergy at all from showing up there. There had to be a lawsuit that was filed recently in federal court in Chicag, where a federal judge said, hey, you know, there's a free exercise clause in the Constitution, and there's also a free speech clause in the Constitution. And the government is infringing upon the rights of the migrants who are being detained in these concentration camps in the United States from receiving any type of visits from religious leaders, religious leaders, you know, being there and supporting them at all. And an emergency order was made to allow on Ash Wednesday for there to be ceremonies outside of the Broadview facility. And at first, it seemed like the Trump regime was not going to follow the court orders. But then ultimately the court orders were followed. And here's how it's being reported by Christopher Hale. In his Ash Wednesday homily, Pope Leo XIV warned that the world is ablaze not just with war, but with the collapse of law, ecology and the sacred. The pope argued lent a time not just for penance, but for rebuilding. He called for faithful not to be rigid and complacent, but all but also open to moving and changing. This is, this is reporting from Christopher. Right before Ash Wednesday, it appeared there's a chance that the Trump Vance White House was going to defy a federal court order to allow Pope Leo's top ally, Chicago Cardinal Kupich and Catholic clergy to enter the Chicago area ICE facility for Ash Wednesday Mass. This would be a historic confrontation between the American government and the Catholic Church. And again, this also comes on a week where we learn from the Epstein files how Steve Bannon was working with Jeffrey Epstein in order to try to take down Pope Francis. And we know that Steve Bannon was also trying to take down Pope Leo xiv. We've seen him on Piers Morgan and other shows when he was Cardinal Prevost before he became the Pope. You had Bannon and Bannon's crew also trying to take down Pope Leo XIV before he became Pope Leo xiv. I want to go through some receipts with you right here as well. So first I want to show you over here earlier this past week where Caroline Levitt accused Pope Leo XIV of being a partisan, political and controversial individual because Pope Leo XIV through his spokespeople said that the Vatican, the Pope will not join the Board of Peace. They called it a pay to play colonialist operation. Here's what Caroline Levitt had to say. Let's play this clip right here.

[Advertiser/Commercial Voice]

The Vatican announced earlier today that they would not be joining the Board of

[Narrator/Host]

Peace Initiatives over concerns that it could

[Advertiser/Commercial Voice]

potentially compete with the United nations over handling crisis conflicts.

[Narrator/Host]

What's the White House's response?

[White House Spokesperson]

Yeah, look, we saw that. I think it's deeply unfortunate. I don't think that peace should be partisan or political or controversial. And of course the administration wants all those who were invited to join the Board of Peace to join because again, the Board of Peace is overseeing the reconstruction of a territory that has been plagued with violence, with bloodshed, with poverty for far too long. And this president has a very bold and ambitious plan and vision to rebuild and reconstruct Gaza, which is well underway because of the Board of Peace. This is a legitimate organization where there are tens of member countries from around the world. And we think that's an unfortunate decision.

[Narrator/Host]

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Midas Even the former cardinal he's now in Cardinal emeritus from the New York area, Timothy Dolan, who to me came off kind of very maga, very, very right wing as well. Here's what he discussed this past week. Again, great reporting by Christopher Hell here. Vice President J.D. vance had to privately apologize to Cardinal Timothy Dolan for falsely claiming that Catholic bishops oppose immigration enforcement because they profit from migrant resettlement programs. Vance, who made the accusation during a televised inter last year, told Dolan the statement was out of line and not true, according to the cardinal. In the same interview, Dolan condemned the Trump Vance administration's decision to conduct immigration raids near churches, calling the practice harassment and a profound violation of religious liberty. Here's where Carl and Cardinal Dolan accused the Trump Vance of targeting, harassing and going into Catholic parishes. And again, this is an extraordinary statement coming from Cardinal Dolan right here. Here, play this clip.

[Cardinal Timothy Dolan]

Franklin gr, who's not a Catholic, and I were very worried when I started going into churches and harassing churches. So we had here in the Archdiocese of New York that ICE would show up on Sunday Mass just in trucks and cars and the people wouldn't come. They would.

[Narrator/Host]

That was happening.

[Cardinal Timothy Dolan]

That was happening here. So I called Reverend Graham and I said we need to bring up to the religious freedom that this is a violation of religious Freedom. People have the right to worship on the Sabbath. The federal government cannot impede that or harass it. And they are. Franklin Graham wisely said, let's go. Let's bring it to the attention of ice. And we did. And the director here in New York said, thanks for bringing that tonight.

[Narrator/Host]

And over here, Cardinal Dolan talks about how JD Vance admitted that he lied when he claimed Catholic bishops were pro immigrant because they wanted to make money. Here, play this clip right here.

[Cardinal Timothy Dolan]

You bet. I would sometimes say, oh, can't agree with you. There he was. He and I had a little tete a tete. You probably know, when he suggested that bishops in the United States were pro immigrant because we were making money, which I said was not only untrue, it was scurrilous. And he apologized.

[Pope Leo XIV]

All right.

[Cardinal Timothy Dolan]

He says that was out of line, and that's not true.

[Narrator/Host]

Now, just to show you the video back from May, this was the exchange right here. And again, Christopher Hale's got it all. He's on top of this coverage of JD Vance when he handed Pope Leo XIV the invitation to attend Trump's a 250th celebration. You can see how disinterested Pope Leo XIV looked right here when he received this invitation. He just kind of put it aside. And now we know that Leo the 14th rejected showing up, and instead, he's not going to be there. He's going to be at that small Mediterranean migrant gateway. Lampedusa is where he'll be on that on that day. And this comes just days after Leo publicly rebuffed Trump's invitation to join the Board of Peace. Here, let's play this clip right here.

[Pope Leo XIV]

Good morning. Good morning.

[Narrator/Host]

How are you?

[Cardinal Timothy Dolan]

Good.

[Narrator/Host]

So good to see you.

[Pope Leo XIV]

Welcome.

[Narrator/Host]

A couple things.

First of all, this is a letter

[Pope Leo XIV]

from the president first lady inviting you

[Narrator/Host]

to come to you.

Many things to do, but wanted to make sure I gave Jen letter at some point.

[Pope Leo XIV]

Of course.

[Narrator/Host]

Of course.

So this, of course, is Chicago Bears

jury Jersey with your name. And I hopefully he just tried to

[Advertiser/Commercial Voice]

sign it with a pattern, but they. They got a little nervous, apparently.

[Pope Leo XIV]

Yeah.

[Narrator/Host]

So I guess that's. There's our kid right there.

Okay. You probably imagine in the United States,

people are extremely excited about. About you, about your.

[Pope Leo XIV]

Bronze sculpture. The piece is a fragile flower.

[Narrator/Host]

And.

[Pope Leo XIV]

Pope Francis did not live in May. Live in. Totally designed, but.

[Narrator/Host]

Oh, that's wonderful.

[Pope Leo XIV]

Which is right upstairs from here. Thrilled to see that.

[White House Spokesperson]

Thank you.

[Pope Leo XIV]

For you.

[Narrator/Host]

And.

[Pope Leo XIV]

And then this is just a letter explaining the scholars.

[Narrator/Host]

I see real.

[Pope Leo XIV]

And there's One of these for secretarials. Okay.

[Narrator/Host]

Wonder. Goodbye. Thank you and we'll pray for you.

[Pope Leo XIV]

Thank you for being here for celebration. Yes, I'm sure we will meet again and be in contact. Okay, fantastic. Thank you. Very nice to meet you.

[Narrator/Host]

Now, just to show you what it ended up looking like, Ash Wednesday in Illinois, Watch, as you'll see here, Chicago Archbishop Cupich play this clip.

[White House Spokesperson]

It was led by Chicago Cardinal Blaise Cupich. He celebrated Mass, then led a procession to the Broadview Detention Center. The site gained attention during the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Operation Midway Blitz aimed at arresting illegal immigrants with criminal records. Joining us now is Father Leandro Fassa from Our lady of Mount Carmel in Melrose Park, Illinois. Father, you attended the Mass and procession. Can you tell us more about the turnout and the overall feeling?

[Pope Leo XIV]

Yes, I attended the Madison procession. It was in my parish. I'm the pastor of Our Lady Mount Carmel in Merlot's Park. Cardinal decided to be with us because we wanted to do a Mass and procession in front of the Scalabrini center and support our families who are being affected by this immigration raids.

[Narrator/Host]

Here's what Steve Bannon previously said when he was trying to undermine Pope Leo xiv. Let's play this clip.

[Steve Bannon]

I do think one of the dark horses, and I think unfortunately he's one of the most progressive, is Cardinal Prevost. I don't think he's getting enough play. He is certainly on the short list as being. And I think it's pretty shocking given how the contempt they hold the American church. The American church gives so much money, they're afraid it has too much power. So they've never really wanted to have an American Pope. But my understanding is Prevost is one of the ones closest to Francis ideologically. He's also had tremendous experience in Latin America and so he's one of the ones on the short list. I'm a big believer that Cardinal Sera from Africa would be a. Would be a perfect, would be a perfect selection right now for this moment in the church. But I will tell everybody this is, this is anybody's game right now between parallel, one of the traditionalists. You have no earthy idea how this is going to turn out. That's why I think this time, this run up is so important and it's kind of, it's interesting that it's ironic. It's going to take place, it's going to kick off, I think on the. Either the day of or the day before the 80th anniversary of a victory in Europe. So it's very symbolic of what's coming together here in the first part of May.

[Narrator/Host]

And here's Pope Leo XIV statement on the world becoming a much more dangerous place as a result of what the Trump regime has been engaged in and other authoritarians have been engaged in. It's a very powerful speech right here.

[Pope Leo XIV]

You'll play this clip in our time. The weakness of multilateralism is a particular cause for concern at the international level. A diplomacy that promotes dialogue and seeks consensus among all parties is being replaced by a diplomacy based on force by either individuals or groups of allies. War is back in vogue and a zeal for war is spreading. The principle established after the Second World War, which prohibited nations from using force to violate the borders of others, has been completely undermined. Peace is no longer sought as a gift and a desirable good in itself or in the pursuit of the establishment of the ordered universe willed by God with a more perfect form of justice among men and women.

[Narrator/Host]

There you have it, folks. Let me know what you think. Hit subscribe. Let's get to 6 million subscribers and thanks for watching.

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[Pope Leo XIV]

Welcome home.

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[Cardinal Timothy Dolan]

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[Cardinal Timothy Dolan]

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[Cardinal Timothy Dolan]

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