An age of political outrage has eroded Americans’ capacity for shock. But the response by Trump and other Republican leaders and supporters to criticism from Pope Leo XIV against the war in Iran has tested that proposition.

The pope has been broadly and consistently critical of war, but pointedly critical of the American attacks in Iran. On Palm Sunday, the pope, who is an American, condemned the use of religion to justify violence. God “does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war”, he said at mass in St Peter’s Square.

(Taylor Marshall, an outspoken Catholic conservative with a considerable YouTube following) ascribed Trump’s conduct this week to the president’s fundamental difficulty processing the soft power of an American pope, and the challenge that poses to Trump’s sense of self as the most powerful person in the world.

The pope “is in charge of 1.4 billion – not million, billion – people and he has the nerve to interject his moral authority into the activity of President Trump? I really think that is the origin story. It’s a philosophical conundrum that President Trump was never prepared for and I think he’s still trying to figure out how to navigate it.”