Rubio to meet with Pope Leo amid highly public, personal policy standoff between pontiff, president

Secretary of State Marco Rubio is planning to meet this week with Pope Leo XIV in Italy, amid a remarkably public and hardened standoff between President Trump and the pontiff over such global issues as the U.S. war with Iran and the United States' withering fiscal-foreign policy on Cuba.

The public rift appeared to start when Trump threatened that “a whole civilization will die” if Iran did not make a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz shipping lane, amid the U.S.-Iran war that began Feb. 28.

Leo called the statement “truly unacceptable.” 

He also said: “The world is being ravaged by a handful of tyrants. The masters of war pretend not to know that it takes only a moment to destroy, yet often a lifetime is not enough to rebuild.”

Trump responded by saying the pontiff was weak on crime, weak on nuclear weapons, and should “focus on being a great pope, not a politician.” 

The meeting will be the first between a Trump administration official since the president criticized the Pope over his remarks concerning Iran. Rubio is expected to also discuss the situation in Cuba, according to USA Today. 

The U.S. has increased sanctions and created an oil embargo on the island nation in January, hoping to force the country to the negotiating table.