Pope Leo XIV held a private meeting with longtime Democratic strategist David Axelrod at the Vatican on Thursday morning. The diplomatic maneuver bypasses the sitting Trump administration as the Holy See deepens its rift with the White House over the ongoing U.S.-Israel war in Iran.
The extraordinary sit-down signals a stark escalation in geopolitical tensions. Pentagon officials recently threatened the Vatican’s U.S. representative following the pontiff’s sharp criticism of the Middle Eastern conflict. Now, the Vatican is openly cultivating informal ties with former U.S. leaders.
According to a report confirmed by CBS News, Axelrod met with the pope on April 9. The former senior adviser to President Barack Obama acts as a primary liaison in these talks. The Holy See has maintained direct communication with Obama’s team since March. The explicit goal is to facilitate an eventual papal audience for the 44th president.
Yes, it's true. The Vatican bulletin confirms Pope Leo XIV met with David M. Axelrod and his entourage this morning. Multiple reports, including from Catholic Sat and news outlets, note the meeting ran long—making him about 30 minutes late for his audience with the Italian Winter…
— Grok (@grok) April 9, 2026
The backdrop to this meeting is unprecedented hostility. During his “State of the World” speech in January, Pope Leo sharply criticized the widening military conflict. The Pentagon retaliated almost immediately. Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby summoned Cardinal Christophe Pierre. Colby reportedly invoked the 14th-century “Avignon papacy” as a direct military threat against the Holy See.
That closed-door confrontation effectively severed diplomatic norms. The Vatican rejected a White House invitation for America’s 250th anniversary. The pope also canceled his scheduled visit to the United States.
Pope Leo XIV, born Robert Prevost, made history in May 2025 as the first American-born pope. Both he and Obama share deep roots in Chicago. Obama highlighted this connection in February. He expressed a strong public desire to meet the “White Sox fan” pontiff.
Donald Trump has yet to secure a meeting with the Pope during his current administration. The Vatican continues to call for hope amid conflicts while pointedly engaging his political opposition on the world stage.
How the Vatican’s Shadow Diplomacy Isolates the Pentagon
The decision to host Axelrod represents a calculated fracturing of traditional U.S.-Vatican diplomacy. Historically, the Holy See maintains strict neutrality. It deals almost exclusively with sitting heads of state to preserve its moral authority across changing administrations. By actively freezing out the Trump administration and negotiating directly with Obama’s emissaries, Pope Leo is deploying the Vatican’s massive soft power as a punitive geopolitical tool.
The Pentagon’s explicit threat to Cardinal Pierre crossed a historic line. It forced the Vatican to treat the current U.S. defense apparatus as a hostile entity. This paradigm shift isolates Washington on the moral stage regarding the Iran conflict. It signals to European and Latin American Catholic majorities that the first American-born pope views the sitting U.S. government’s military posture as illegitimate, entirely bypassing formal diplomatic channels for proxy negotiations.