In a war of words between President Trump and Pope Leo, the PBS News Hour is going to line up with the pontiff, who they perceive as on "their side." To attack Trump, PBS on Wednesday welcomed on Stephen Colbert's favorite priest, Father James Martin, a leftist activist hailed for being "passionate about LGBTQ+ inclusion and advocacy within the Catholic Church."
The online headline for the 8-and-a-half minute segment was "Pope Leo's critiques of Trump policies hold more weight as a fellow American, priest says." It's a little odd to imply on screen that it's wrong to be "Criticizing the Pope," when PBS found people to trash Pope Benedict for being soft on child abuse when he died.
Anchor Amna Nawaz threw softballs at the priest, starting with this: "So let me just ask what you thought when you heard Vice President Vance warn Pope Leo to be careful on matters of theology. What was your reaction?" This was Martin's first answer knocking Vance as obviously dumber than the Pope.
Fr. JAMES MARTIN: That you have the vice president warning the vicar of Christ, who is an Augustinian, who is at that time visiting the birthplace of St. Augustine, and who knows more about St. Augustine than most people have forgotten, that he doesn't understand just war and that he doesn't understand theology, I just found that really hard to swallow.
Then Nawaz asked: "Father Martin, this idea of just war, what should we understand about that?" Martin claimed "pretty much every theologian" agrees with him that the war on Iran is not a just war. Then she really set up Martin to drop rhetorical bombs:
Easy peasy for Catholics Against Trump! PBS @NewsHour turns to leftist activist Fr. James Martin. Anchor Amna Nawaz cued him up on his insulting the Vice President for "inaccuracy and hubris" and then asked him to denounce Trump's use of Jesus imagery. "Challenging" is not a… pic.twitter.com/fTGDngIZrg
— Tim Graham (@TimJGraham) April 16, 2026
AMNA NAWAZ: You posted a very lengthy response online, called out what you saw as the ironies of Vice President Vance's criticism of the pope. You also noted his conversion, and then you wrote: "We rejoice over everyone entering the church. What most of us do not rejoice over, however, is a deadly combination of inaccuracy and hubris." What did you mean by that?
Fr. JAMES MARTIN: Well, the inaccuracy is that he doesn't seem to understand the tenets of just war, which you can look up all the Catholic leaders and cardinals and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops that have talked about that in the past couple of days.
And the hubris is telling the pope, of all people, who has a doctorate in canon law from a pontifical university and who has been an Augustinian for many years, that he doesn't understand theology. It's really pretty hard to imagine calling it anything other than hubris.
So Nawaz cued him up to denounce Vance as a boastful moron twice. Then she turned over to Trump's memes either implying he's like Christ or that he's close to Christ:
NAWAZ: And, as we just reported, Father Martin, I have to ask you about these pictures. The president posted that A.I. image of himself being cradled by Jesus. That followed an A.I. image of himself as Jesus that he later deleted. That followed, we should remind people, an A.I. image of himself as pope. Do these images go too far, in your view?
MARTIN: Yes, I mean, particularly the one where he is picturing himself as Jesus. Some people have used the term blasphemy. I think it's more appropriate to call it idolatrous.
The First Commandment is, you shall have no other Gods before me. And so to picture yourself as Jesus is really trespassing into that territory. And it's not just Catholics who are upset. I think any Christian who saw that would have to scratch their heads or be offended.
NPR's Morning Edition on Tuesday also served up softballs for this left-wing activist priest. But at least NPR balanced it by pressing conservative Catholic journalist and commentator Michael Knowles on Monday's All Things Considered.
