Jo McKenna: Italy Correspondent on the latest conflict between Donald Trump and the Pope

Fresh conflict between US President Donald Trump and Pope Leo XIV. 

Trump launched another attack on the Pope, suggesting he believes it’s okay for Iran to have a nuclear weapon, and claiming his stance is endangering people. 

The Pope made no such claims and responded to the attack by saying the mission of the church is to preach the Gospel and to preach peace, and people were free to criticise him for it.  

Italy Correspondent Jo McKenna told Mike Hosking Pope Leo said he's never supported nuclear weapons, and those criticising should do it with the truth. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
In Italy.

Speaker 2 (00:00):
Joe mckinna, good morning to you. Good morning Mane Marco
was on his way to see the Pope again. And
what's the outrage level this time with Trump and the Pope.

Speaker 1 (00:10):
Well, we've got a fresh attack as you might have
heard from Donald Trump attacking Pope Leo, not saying that
he accusing him of endangering a lot of Catholics because
of his stance on the Iran War. And we were
told by the Vatican that Pope Leo wouldn't be responding,
but he did last night. He actually said he wanted
to preach a message of peace, but anyone was free

(00:33):
to criticize him. He said he'd never supported nuclear weapons
and that those who criticize him need to speak the truth.

Speaker 2 (00:39):
Okay, fair enough, No, now, what was he doing on
the phone to the bank? Is this possible that the Pope?
Does the Plope really ring up the bank and go
and what does he say? Does he go, hello, it's
the Pope here.

Speaker 1 (00:48):
It sounds like a bizarre story. But apparently after his
election he called his local bank in the US to say, oh,
by the way, I need to change my details. And
when he was speaking to the clerk, she said that
you have to come in in person if you want
to do that, and he said, I'm not going to
be able to do that, and then after a little
bit of back and forth, he said, what if I

(01:10):
told you I was Pope Leo and I'm told that
she hung up on him?

Speaker 2 (01:14):
And that was the end of that. I mean, how
many credit calls do you get this deep fake thing?
I'm looking at the photo and Maloney shared this and
this is not a new story per se, but I mean,
where do you go with this? Because when you look
at that photo, you think, my word, the technology is amazing,
isn't it.

Speaker 1 (01:29):
The technology is amazing. And I have to say, to
her credit, the Prime Minister, Georgie Maloney was actually making
jokes about these fake images of her wearing lingerie, saying
that whoever created them has actually improved my appearance quite
a bit. But at the same time, she's got a
backlash because some people think it's authentic, and one user

(01:51):
said that, you know, the Prime Minister shouldn't be presenting
herself in such a state. It's truly shameful.

Speaker 2 (01:56):
Yeah, but see that's the problem, isn't it. She's trying
to say one thing and some people are so thick
they can't work it out. So I just don't know
what you do about that. I mean, are the laws
of their rules? I mean I assume that it's illegal,
isn't it.

Speaker 1 (02:06):
Oh? Goodness knows. I don't know that the Italians have
kept up with that just yet.

Speaker 2 (02:10):
No, precisely. This im forecast twenty two hundred and seventy
euros per year. This is what energy? So this is
gas and power, right, yeah.

Speaker 1 (02:17):
So energy costs could the worst case scenario could cost
Italians more than twenty two hundred euros. Economic growth, of course,
in the Eurozone is expected to slow. The IMF says
there's mounting risk of recession as we know, and Italy
is particularly exposed.

Speaker 2 (02:35):
Right, so what do they do with the EU? Do
they go to the EU and say, can we have
a little bit of wiggle room on the old debt ceiling? Please?

Speaker 1 (02:41):
Yes? Can we have a little bit of wiggle room?
They're pushing for greater flexibility to address the rising energy costs. Interestingly,
the Prime Minister Maloney and Georgia Maloney had a meeting
today with her coalition partners. They want to focus on
reducing Rome's energy dependence good luck with that. But I
think behind that, Mike, they want to push for the

(03:02):
reintroduction of or the introduction of nuclear power generators in Italy.

Speaker 2 (03:07):
That so it's funny you should say that because I'm
a big nuclear advocate, not because I think we've all
moved from from Three Mile Island and stuff. And if
you want clean energy, then nuclear is clean and you've
got your data center debate and all that sort of thing.
How angsty is nuclear in twenty twenty six in Italy?

Speaker 1 (03:26):
I think it'd be very divisive, even though the French,
of course, are a great example of where it can
function function very effectively. Is it a good idea in
a country where there are earthquakes every second day? I'm
not sure about that. You might know more about that.

Speaker 2 (03:39):
No, that's a not unreasonable point. I guess how much
is a house in Milan?

Speaker 1 (03:42):
By the way, Oh, you put me on the spot there.
The prices are certainly going up. A lot of incoming
foreign investment Brits who are disillusioned with the government, they're Americans,
disillusion with Trump. They're coming into Italy and investing at
the top end.

Speaker 2 (03:58):
So going up reading about that the other day, there's
a nice little tax treatment you've got going there, so
you're bringing your money from offshore and what you're not
essentially you're not text on it, aren't you. There's a
tax break to be there.

Speaker 1 (04:10):
There's a tax break, and there's a flat tax. I
can't remember off the top of my head. But it's
very good for those at the top end for sure.

Speaker 2 (04:18):
Forty one hundred euros on told per square meter, forty
one one hundred euros per square media. That's some serious coin,
isn't it.

Speaker 1 (04:25):
It's not a good situation for the worker bees like us.

Speaker 2 (04:29):
Oh exactly, nice. Nice to see you, Joe. Go well,
we'll go job next week. Joe McKenna in Italy. For
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