Trump threatens the Pope, rages at Nato - and starts again with Greenland

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• Not very subtle threats against the Vatican: How Donald Trump reacts to Pope Leo XIV's criticism of his foreign policy.
• If the Catholic Church is getting so much pressure for so little, NATO has a lot to be prepared for.
• Not even marriage is sacred: this is how badly Trump talks about Keir Starmer, Emmanuel Macron and Pedro Sánchez in April.
• "We could cut off trade with Spain": Trump wants to punish Nato countries that don't support his war.
• "Think of Greenland": Trump threatens to break up the alliance.

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"War is back in fashion and the enthusiasm for war is spreading," Pope Leo XIV tells his diplomatic corps on January 9. Six days earlier, the USA had nabbed Nicolas Maduro in Caracas. In his speech, the head of the Catholic Church complained that diplomacy today was based more on power than on dialog and consensus.

"The principle established after the Second World War, which forbade nations to violate the borders of others by force, has been completely undermined," says the pontiff. This does not go down well in Washington. Just days later, the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy invites the Vatican representative to the Pentagon.

This job in the US Department of Defense is Elbridge Colby's. According to "The Free Press", he tells Cardinal Christophe Pierre the following: "The United States has the military power to do what it wants in the world. The Catholic Church had better side with them."

Not very subtle threat against the Vatican

In the conversation, a US official is also said to have recalled the Avignonese papacy: In the 14th century, there was a power struggle between the Vatican and France, which at times led to the Pope residing in Avignon. A not very subtle threat that Pope Leo should not criticize President Trump and his policies.

The Church is shocked, but remains steadfast, Christopher Hale knows. The Catholic Democrat from Tennessee reports on his sub-stack Letters from Leo that the Pope subsequently canceled a visit to the USA that had been planned for later this year.

The Vatican is also said to have turned down an invitation to celebrate the 250th birthday of the USA on July 4, 2026: Instead, Pope Leo would prefer to visit the Mediterranean island of Lampedusa on that day, which has repeatedly made headlines due to the suffering of refugees. It seems like a quiet but symbolic act of resistance.

"The Spanish government will not applaud them"

Pope Leo only mentioned Trump publicly for the first time on April 2, according to The New Yorker:"I heard that President Trump recently stated that he would like to end the war. [...] Hopefully he's looking for a way to reduce the violence and the bombs, which would go a long way toward eliminating the hatred that's being fomented there. And that is constantly increasing in the Middle East and elsewhere."

Like Switzerland, the Vatican is neutral - and therefore naturally does not fit in very well with NATO. But: if so much pressure is being exerted on the Pope, who is simply delivering the message of peace that is actually inherent to the Church, what can the defense alliance, which did not want to participate in Trump's war against Iran, expect?

What can Pedro Sánchez, the head of the Spanish government, expect? He writes on X: "Ceasefires are always good news. But this momentary relief cannot make us forget the chaos, the destruction and the lives lost." And:

Trump compares Starmer to Neville Chamberlain

Prime Minister Sánchez has spoken out against the Iran war from the outset - and banned the use of Spanish US bases to bomb Tehran. The UK initially followed suit, only to allow the use of domestic bases again. Rome has also banned Trump from using Italian bases.

While the US President has a good relationship with Italy's Prime Minister Georgia Meloni, he is not at all on good terms with London and Madrid. The 79-year-old is also unhappy with Germany and France, which deny US jets access to their airspace. Trump made this abundantly clear even before his most recent meeting with NATO Secretary General Mike Rutte.

The New Yorker is bringing out the heavy artillery: On April 6, he called Prime Minister Keir Starmer "another Neville Chamberlain" - that was the British foreign minister who agreed to the annexation of the Sudetenland to Hitler's Germany in 1938 in return for a vague promise of peace.

Laughing about Macron's relationship

Four days earlier, Trump ridiculed Starmer at an Easter party in the White House, saying he consulted with his team first instead of making decisions. He said of French President Emmanuel Macron, to laughter from the audience, that "his wife treats him very badly".

When the USA asked Paris for help on the road, Macron said: "We can only do that once the war has been won." NATO was not needed at all: the alliance had simply "stood in the way" when the USA had "blown up" Iran. The requests were merely tests.

Spain has been on Trump's mind for some time after Madrid refused to meet the new NATO target for higher defense spending last autumn. On October 10, Trump said in the White House that these "drifters" should be thrown out of the alliance.

"We could cut off trade with Spain"

Shortly after taking up arms against Iran, Trump also brought economic penalties into play in the White House on March 3: "I could stop everything that has to do with Spain tomorrow, or better yet today," he explained in the White House. "All business. I have the right to stop them. Embargoes and everything to do with it. And we may do that."

Trump is serious, as he emphasizes in front of a running helicopter rotor in front of the White House on April 8 - see video at the top. "They're not cooperating at all. I think they've been very bad, not good at all. We could cut off trade with Spain," he said.

"There is clearly a disappointment," Mark Rutte sums up his meeting with Trump on the same day. The Nato Secretary General from the Netherlands once again buttered up the Republican to keep him happy. But it looks more and more as if the break-up of the alliance can no longer be prevented.

"Think of Greenland"

Not least thanks to Trump, who in his latest social media post not only rages about the partners again, but also brings Greenland into play once more. "Think of Greenland," he warns nebulously, "that big, badly managed piece of ice."

Trump's post from April 9.

TruthSocial/@RealDonaldTrump

According to the Wall Street Journal, Trump is now considering "punishing NATO countries that did not support the war". They in turn, like Germany, insist that they were not consulted before the Iran attack. And then they are also verbally attacked from the White House - as "cowards", for example.

Explosives and blood reserves

This is how seriously Denmark has prepared for Trump's Greenland attack

The rupture is becoming apparent simply because the public discussion about who is defending whom and when - or not - is already undermining the credibility of the alliance. In any case, Nato fits little into Trump's world view, in which the western hemisphere is the new US playground.

blue News analyzes ceasefire

Gambled and without insight

Europe, which is often far too liberal for Trump, simply doesn't belong there. A survey by "Politico" fits in with this: In Spain, France, Germany, Italy, Poland and Belgium, 36 percent see the USA as a threat. In China, on the other hand, the figure is only 29%. The rift is there.