And who is confirming that Pope Leo is a moral counterweight/threat to Donald Trump? None other than MAGA types like loopy Laura Loomer and perpetually angry Steve Bannon. They see Leo as a threat to the president and their cause. And he is. … The Independent, Esquire, and NYT have more on the MAGA meltdown over Leo. … Confirmation from another source, i.e. the Times: “An American Pope Emerges as a Potential Contrast to Trump on the World Stage.” … And I’ll repeat what I wrote yesterday: I find it extremely hard to believe that the College of Cardinals’s  selection of Leo was devoid of global political considerations. The cardinals knew what they were doing – just as they knew what they were doing when they selected Karol Wojtyla as pope to morally and politically counterbalance the Soviets in the ’70s. …

At PBS, David Brooks also makes the direct link between Leo XIV and John Paul II, calling it a “brilliant” move by cardinals to pick Leo. And it is brilliant. And Loomer and Bannon know it. That’s why they’re angry. …

Update — 5.12.25 – From the NYT’s David French: “President Trump is no longer the most important American in the world.”