I have always felt admiration for Jesus‘ responses while being tempted by Satan during his forty days of fasting in the wilderness. Jesus had just been baptized by John. 

When Satan approached him, three times, suggesting turning stones into bread, suggesting throwing himself from the pinnacle of the temple, and showing him all the lands he could be king of if he just falls down and worship him, Jesus quotes Scripture.

“Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’

Satan then left him while angels came and attended him.”

…

The current feud of the Trump administration with the Holy Father reminds me of this Temptation.

Trump claims, in recent days, that the Pope would, by quoting Isaiah and the Gospels, endorse Iran of possessing a nuclear weapon. Really? By someone who had just threatened Iran of annihilation (even ending its two-and-half millennium-old civilization). Deeply insulting.

Then, the picture of Vice President Vance in the Vatican, meeting the late Pope Francis hours before his demise. The horror in the Pope’s face. 

At the funeral service for Pope Francis in the Vatican, Donald Trump was seen in a navy blue suit, diverging from the traditional all-black attire requested for the solemn event, appearing to violate etiquette norms. His wife Melania was sporting an inappropriate fantasy-of-a-mourning garment suitable for a fashion parade. not indicating real grief. A vain display of “I really don’t care, do you?” 

Then Trump’s outrageous meme, posted on his infamous TruthSocial platform, depicting him as Pope with an erected index finger rather than the blessing gesture by Jesus. Not knowing that the Tawhid is a signal for Muslim extremism. Just a few days before the new Pope was elected, Leo XIV!

Now Trump’s meme as Savior, brazenly lying that he meant he was depicted as a doctor. 

Vance’s twists and turns, also in religious matters: a journey from evangelical Protestantism,  Pentecostalism, Atheism, Augustine philosophy to finally Catholicism. How has he just instrumentalized all of this for personal benefits?

In a Facebook post he wrote in 2016, long before becoming Trump’s running mate, to a former roommate,  

“I go back and forth between thinking Trump is a cynical asshole like Nixon who wouldn’t be that bad (and might even prove useful) or that he’s America’s Hitler.”

I bigot. He once shocked attendees at the Munich Security Conference with his remarks on freedom of speech in Europe. Now he is lecturing Pope Leo on Augustine’s “Just War”. 

And finally, Pete Hegseth’s prayer of Quentin Tarrantino’s Gospel the other day.

I do not believe in Satan, the creature. The evil is present anyway. 

18 April 2026 @ 12:44 UTC+2.

Last modified April 18, 2026.