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Newly elected Pope Leo XIV, Robert Prevost addresses the crowd from the main central loggia balcony of the St Peter's Basilica for the first time, after the cardinals ended the conclave, in The Vatican, on May 8, 2025.
Then-Cardinal Robert Prevost has criticized the extreme policies of the Republican administration.
Prior to stepping onto the Vatican balcony Thursday as the first American to lead the Catholic Church, Pope Leo XIV — formerly Cardinal Robert Prevost — was quietly signaling dissent from some of President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance's policies, particularly on immigration.
Though he had not posted on X (formerly Twitter) at all in 2024, the Chicago-born cardinal posted just five times in 2025 before entering the conclave. But those few posts spoke volumes. As Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, noted on Bluesky, the future pope used his limited digital presence to challenge the administration. At the time of this writing, he had 51,000 followers on X.
Related: U.S. Cardinal Robert Prevost becomes new pope
One February post retweeted a National Catholic Reporterop-ed sharply rebuking Vance’s televised claim that Christian love should be ranked — prioritizing family and citizens above others.
"JD Vance is wrong: Jesus doesn't ask us to rank our love for others," the soon-to-be pope's post read. The op-ed argued that such a hierarchy distorts scripture and is incompatible with Jesus’ teachings, which expand love beyond borders and bloodlines.
“Jesus never speaks of love as something to be rationed,” author Kat Armas wrote. “He speaks of love as abundance — a table where there is enough for everyone.”
That quiet rebuke came just weeks before Vance, a Catholic and key architect of Trump’s agenda, met privately with Pope Francis hours before the pope’s death.
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Another of those posts, dated April 14, was a repost of condemnation by Washington Auxiliary Bishop Evelio Menjivar, who called out Trump and Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele for laughing during an Oval Office meeting about the deportation of a U.S. resident. The tweet linked to Menjivar’s influential essay in the Catholic Standard, where he described the U.S. government’s immigration crackdown as a campaign of “shock and awe,” likened it to Christ’s Passion, and warned Catholics not to remain silent in the face of suffering.
“Do you not see the suffering? Is your conscience not disturbed? How can you stay quiet?” Menjivar wrote, invoking Saint Óscar Romero and directly challenging Catholics who approve of or ignore the human toll of deportations.
Andry José Hernández Romero, a gay Venezuelan asylum seeker, was removed from the U.S. without judicial review and imprisoned abroad.
Related: LGBTQ+ Catholic organization's leader says he's 'hopeful' about Pope Leo XIV
For LGBTQ+ people and immigrants whose families have been targeted by immigration raids, and whose very humanity is under daily attack by this administration, the question now is whether Pope Leo XIV’s early signals will turn into public, pastoral leadership — or remain quiet reposts from a cardinal no longer in the shadows.
