Could the first American Pope be an America First Pope?

“We do not need loud, forceful communication,” said Pope Leo XIV, the Chicago-born American prelate Robert Prevost – at his first press conference on Monday, “but rather communication that is capable of listening and of gathering the voices of the weak who have no voice.” 

His Holiness, who opened by thanking the 6,000 attendees in English before delivering his remarks in superb Italian, also called for freedom for imprisoned journalists, urged members of the Fourth Estate to avoid “ideological or partisan” language in their work and admonished them to pursue a “path of communication in favor of peace.” These sentiments echoed the new Pope’s first Sunday blessing as occupant of the Holy See, in which he called for peace in Ukraine, urged a renewed ceasefire and release of all hostages in Gaza, and pleaded with the faithful for “Never again war!” 

The unexpected choice of an American Pope has touched off a flurry of curiosity about virtually aspect of his life, from banal details of his childhood to whether his creole ancestry makes him a “person of color” to his citizenship status upon beginning his Pontificate. On the last question, it has been clarified that he will remain a US citizen, but could America’s first pope be an America First Pope? 

Speculation about Pope Leo’s politics came within minutes of his election and on the heels of hackles over President Trump’s posting of an AI-generated image of himself as Pope, which he said was a joke that his critics could not take. Conservative influencer Jack Posobiec, who was in Rome at the time of the papal conclave, quickly uncovered statements suggesting that the new Pope had at earlier times in his calling opposed radical gender ideology and LGBTQ+ rights. This included a public denial that there are more than two genders, a position that could have at least theoretically ended his employment prospects in a variety of professional fields. Researchers working for Turning Point USA’s Charlie Kirk located Illinois state voting records that appeared to show Prevost having voted in multiple Republican primaries, suggesting he hews toward the GOP. Naturally, calling for peace in Ukraine and Gaza, the immediate release of all remaining hostages, and avoiding war is consistent with the Trump administration’s general approach to foreign policy and, at least with respect to Ukraine, opposed to Trump’s critics at home and in much of Europe. 

Contradictory evidence soon emerged, including a February 2025 X post in which Leo – then still Cardinal Prevost – appeared to take exception to Vice President J.D. Vance’s opinion that Christian love expands according to a hierarchy of prioritized relationships. Earlier reposts from the same account seemed to oppose Trump administration positions on illegal immigrants, guns and climate change. Some conservatives wondered about Prevost’s many years in Peru, which could have linked him to Liberation Theology – a Marxist-infused approach to Catholicism prominent in Latin America that highlights the socioeconomic roots of poverty and oppression. Others noted that he did not use English in his May 5 acceptance address and wondered if having spent so much time out of his home country made him something other than a “true” American. His apparent closeness to Pope Francis, a theological liberal of pro-globalist leanings who elevated Prevost to cardinal in 2023, also attracted comment. The New York Times was so excited that one of its White House correspondents hailed Leo as a potential anti-Trump – a rival American who, as the spiritual leader of 1.4 billion Roman Catholics now wields “enormous global influence” and could represent alternative American values on the world stage. 

Not so fast, says Pope Leo’s eldest brother Louis Prevost, a resident of Port Charlotte, Florida, who told the Times that he has some political disagreements with his brother, whom he remembers throwing down the stairs of their suburban Chicago childhood home. “I think he’d be a little more conservative” than Pope Francis, Louis said, having consented to an interview after the former paper of record spelunked his Facebook feed to find posts reportedly claiming the Democratic party is filled with communists, that leftists would once have been “tarred, feathered, and rode out of town on a donkey, or worse, shot and strung up,” and that woke folk should be institutionalized. In a colorful rejoinder to critiques of Trump’s tariff policy, Louis appeared to have called former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi a “drunk ‘c-word’” and repeated speculation that her husband’s violent assault in 2022 was the result of a gay internet hook-up gone horribly wrong. 

Potential political disagreements do not seem to have bothered Trump, who posted that he looks forward to meeting the Pontiff and called his election a “great honor” for the United States, or Vance, a practicing Catholic convert who made similar positive and supportive remarks. Leo XIV will have challenges in a divided world. Regardless of how he feels about the MAGA movement, however, the sprawling tent over which he presides is huge, maybe even bigger than the GOP’s.