Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has publicly expressed "the deepest solidarity" with Pope Leo XIV (Robert Prevost, the first American-born pope in history, elected in May 2024) following a series of attacks by US President Donald Trump on the pontiff. Lula, speaking in a video recorded for Brazil's national bishops' conference and shared on social media, said "defenders of peace and the oppressed have been attacked by the powerful who consider themselves deities," stopping short of naming Trump directly — though he stated plainly in a separate interview that the pope "is correct in the criticism he made of President Trump." The public spat marks the sharpest open confrontation yet between Trump and the papacy, after Trump called Leo XIV "terrible" and "weak" on Sunday, prompting the pope to vow he would continue speaking out, while Trump subsequently posted an AI-generated image of himself embracing Jesus Christ.