After Cardinal Robert Prevost was elected Pope Leo XIV Thursday, a friend asked me, “Will an American pope criticize Trump?”
My answer: If he is rooted in compassion for the underprivileged, for the “strangers” among us, for respect for humanity, for tolerance of the different, for a whole host of attributes lacking in our bloviating, White House occupant, I cannot imagine he will be able to abstain for long from expressing how his beliefs do not align with Trump’s.
Pope Leo XIV has a trail of articles, most written by others, posted on his social media account. Predominantly, they directly questioned positions by Trump and JD Vance (https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/08/us/politics/jd-vance-pope-leo-xiv.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare).
Naysayers are already throwing darts. As Heather Cox Richardson reported Friday, “Right-wing influencer Laura Loomer, who is close to Trump, called Pope Leo ‘another Marxist puppet in the Vatican.’ Influencer Charlie Kirk suggested he was an ‘[o]pen borders globalist installed to counter Trump.’”
As the prelates of the Catholic Church have seemingly signaled the centrality of their faith in advocating for the welfare of even the most downtrodden, it is a sharp contrast to the savagery Trump is exacting on the once and current disadvantaged in our society. Trump is purging the contributions, even the very existence, of Black, Hispanic and Native Americans in the development and formulation of our country.
“A push to purge references to diversity and inclusion led to a page on Jackie Robinson’s life and military career temporarily vanishing from the Pentagon website. Arlington National Cemetery web pages highlighting the graves of Black and female service members disappeared. Books including “To Kill a Mockingbird,” the novel by Harper Lee about racism in the Depression-era South, were purged from schools run by the Defense Department, according to a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union” (https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/15/us/aclu-sues-defense-department-schools-over-book-bans.html?unlocked_article_code=1.F08.Tk4f.rrlA7SHFig50&smid=em-share).
Leadership Questions: Do we want a generation of military officers and leaders to blindly follow orders, or do we want them to exercise judgment under fire, judgment that would uphold truth and the values of America?
That dilemma is facing administrators and faculty at the nation’s service academies who are tasked with enacting directives from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to remove any inference to diversity, equity and inclusion in material cadets and midshipmen are exposed to at their respective academies (https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/08/us/politics/west-point-hegseth-culture-wars.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare).
It’s comforting to think our military responds bravely to enemies foreign and domestic. But the erosion of historical fact, coupled with the fear of retribution for not carrying out orders, has led to doubts about the backbone of our armed forces.
“I’ve lost faith that most people will do the right thing under pressure,” Dr. Graham Parsons, a tenured philosophy professor at West Point, said. “That’s the really painful part of the last few months.”
Even if Trump doesn’t believe it, Blacks, Hispanics and Native Americans contributed to the development of the United States. He can try to erase their heritage in schools, the military, business, science and politics, but all that will accomplish is a deeper burnishing of his image as a racist.
Black slaves taught South Carolina colonists how to cultivate rice, turning the crop into Carolina Gold. The Pilgrims survived because of help from Native Americans.
Navaho code whisperers helped soldiers defeat Japan. Black women were instrumental in launching astronauts into space and returning them safely to Earth.
Hispanic settlers built up the Far West.
Culturally, Blacks, Hispanics, Native Americans and, yes, immigrants from around the globe, transformed the ethos of America.
Trump, and anyone who espouses his unitarian white vision of America, is an ignorant racist, a bigot on the wrong side of history.
