Trump vs. the Church: The President's Five-Month Assault on Pope Leo’s Catholic America

First, it was Catholic Charities. Then, Catholic Relief Services. Now, it’s Catholic hospitals they're trying to shutter.

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It began with ICE raids at parishes. It might end with padlocks on hospital doors.

Over the past five months, Donald Trump and J.D. Vance’s escalating assault on Pope Leo’s Catholic Church has moved from intimidation to institutional destruction.

With the Senate’s razor-thin passage of the “One Big Beautiful Bill” on July 1 — Vice President Vance breaking the 50-50 tie — the war has reached its most dangerous phase yet. If the House follows suit today, hundreds of Catholic hospitals that serve the nation’s poor and vulnerable could be shuttered.

It’s not just bad policy. It’s a moral and religious emergency.

Trump’s bill slashes critical social programs that undergird Catholic healthcare, all while ballooning the budget for mass deportation and detention. The bishops are clear: it’s an “unsustainable enforcement-only approach” to immigration, and it’s ripping apart immigrant families in church pews from Los Angeles to El Paso.

According to ICE’s own data, fewer than 10% of those swept up have any violent criminal record. Most have none at all—just the wrong documents and the wrong ZIP code.

Make no mistake: this isn’t about national security. It’s about criminalizing the Catholic Church’s mission.

First it was Catholic Charities. Then Catholic Relief Services. Now, it’s the hospitals—facilities that serve everyone, regardless of creed or citizenship status.

And they’re going broke.

As Trump and Vance gut Medicaid, deny food assistance to mixed-status families, and impose new fees for asylum-seekers and immigrants seeking work permits, they’re choking off the revenue streams Catholic hospitals depend on. These aren’t political talking points—they’re budget lines with life-and-death consequences.

As David Spicer at the U.S. bishops’ migration office warned, the new funding levels for ICE would give immigration detention nearly the same capacity as the entire federal prison system. And Catholic hospitals, already stretched thin, are left holding the bill—until they can’t.

The bishops are trying to fight back. Cardinal McElroy, a close ally of Pope Leo, denounced the legislation as “inhumane” and “morally repugnant.” Archbishop Gomez called the tactics “a provocation of fear.” Archbishop Broglio warned of “a profound social crisis.” And sources say Pope Leo is furious about Trump’s actions.

But where is the broader Catholic outcry?

J.D. Vance, a Catholic convert, openly accuses the bishops of financial self-interest. Trump mocks “so-called compassion” from the Church while deploying agents to storm churches, parking lots, and apartment complexes. And still, too many pews are silent.

It’s time to say it plainly: this is a Trump-Vance assault on Pope Leo’s Church. It is a deliberate, coordinated attempt to dismantle Catholic witness in public life — especially when that witness defies the state’s cruelty toward the poor, the migrant, and the sick.

The Church must respond not with caution, but with courage. Every bishop, priest, and lay Catholic in America should raise their voice now — not after the hospitals close. Not after the families disappear. Not after the soul of our Church is compromised.

Because if Trump wins this battle, the Gospel loses.