Trump fires back at sharp rebuke from the pope

In his most audacious attack yet on a revered public figure, Donald Trump veered into risky political territory Thursday as he denounced Pope Francis, seeking to galvanize Republicans who worry about border security and appeal to evangelical voters who regard Francis as too liberal.

After the pontiff’s remarkable contention that Trump “is not Christian” in proposing deportations and a wall with Mexico, the candidate said Francis’ criticisms were “disgraceful” and “unbelievable,” and he contended that the Mexican government had hoodwinked the pope into criticizing him.

Politicians rarely rebuke the Vatican so forcefully for fear of alienating Catholic voters. But Trump has been increasingly aggressive ahead of this Saturday’s primary in South Carolina, where polls show a tightening race and the popular Republican governor, Nikki R. Haley, just endorsed Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida.

Trump’s attack on Francis reflected a political calculation that criticizing the pope would not hurt him with conservatives and might even improve his standing in South Carolina and in the Southern-dominated Super Tuesday contests on March 1. Some evangelical denominations in the South and elsewhere take a dim view of the Catholic Church, and many other social conservatives have been critical of Francis over his relatively measured statements about gays, birth control and divorce.

Attacking the pope could energize conservatives who think that Trump will go to greater lengths to halt illegal immigration than establishment politicians and power brokers like the Holy See, according to political strategists in both parties.

Still, the spectacle of the flamboyant billionaire businessman facing down the global leader of 1.2 billion Catholics was the presidential campaign’s most revealing example of Trump’s emotional instinct to make punching bags of those who cross him, whether it is Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, the leaders of longtime allies like Mexico, or the bishop of Rome.

In recent weeks Trump has praised President Vladimir Putin of Russia and Saddam Hussein of Iraq while denouncing Democrats, Republicans and now Pope Francis with his provocative language, reinforcing fears in both parties that a President Trump would destabilize the United States.

“Mr. Trump now adds Pope Francis to his list of people who, after having a policy disagreement, he insults and slurs,” said Russ Schriefer, a veteran Republican strategist and a senior adviser on the presidential campaign of Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, who dropped out of the Republican race last week.

Asked if Trump’s comments would affect the South Carolina primary’s outcome, Schriefer replied, “It may not be reflected in the vote Saturday, but it continues to put his judgment and temperament in question.”

Trump’s remarks could prove far more damaging to him in heavily Catholic states like New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania, all of which have delegate-rich primaries where he is aiming for strong victories. He and his advisers have long seen working-class white voters as a core part of its electoral base, as they were in his successful primary campaign in New Hampshire last week.

But many of these voters are Catholics who, whether they like Francis or not, may blanch at Trump’s denouncing the pope for advocating the church’s position favoring compassion toward immigrants.

“Trump can take on former presidents, governors, senators, fellow candidates and the media, but I think he should just take a pass on arguing with the pope on what makes a better Christian,” said Edward Rollins, a former political adviser to President Ronald Reagan and other Republicans. “It’s a fight Trump can’t win. And shouldn’t try.”

Republican rivals seized on Trump’s pope comments to raise questions about his temperament, yet stopped short of questioning his faith or endorsing the pontiff’s criticisms.

Their measured reactions stemmed from their own staunch opposition to illegal immigration, as well as the unpredictable political outcome of picking fights over the nature and depth of a candidate’s faith.

“I don’t question anybody’s Christianity because I honestly believe that that’s a relationship that you have with your creator,” former Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida told reporters while campaigning in Columbia, South Carolina. “It only enables bad behavior when you — when someone from outside our country talks about Donald Trump.”

Several South Carolina political analysts said they did not think Trump’s remarks would hurt him in their state’s primary, in part because he may only need to capture 30 percent or 35 percent of the vote there to win and capture a large number of delegates.

Likely voters, including many evangelicals, are fully aware of Trump’s history of harsh language and profanity, as well as some of his controversial statements involving religion, including that he has never asked God for forgiveness and would seek to bar Muslims from entering the nation temporarily as a counterterrorism measure.

“A lot of Southern evangelicals have looked hard at Trump and said, ‘I wish he wasn’t potty-mouthed, I wish he wasn’t thrice-married, but I believe he is going to fight for my Christian way of life, and having a strong fighter is important,” said Scott H. Huffmon, a professor of political science at Winthrop University in South Carolina and director of the Winthrop Poll there. “And the kind of people who like the pope for some of his social views aren’t likely to be Trump voters anyway.”

Gibbs Knotts, a political scientist at the College of Charleston, said Trump has had “remarkably strong support” among evangelical voters in South Carolina, a group that made up about 65 percent of Republican presidential primary voters there in 2012. Catholics made up about 13 percent of the Republican primary vote that year, according to Knotts, who said he did not expect Trump’s remarks to hurt him in Saturday’s primary.

“And if it doesn’t hurt him in a state as religious as South Carolina, I don’t see it hurting him in other states in the South,” Knotts said. “South Carolina is a very good bellwether for the remainder of the South.”

Trump, who is not Catholic but who regularly says “the Catholics love me” — a Trumpian phrasing he has applied to virtually all groups of people — has drawn mixed reactions from American Catholics. According to a Pew Research Center poll last month, 39 percent of them said he would be terrible as president, while 14 percent said he would do poorly. Twenty percent said they thought he would be good as president, and 10 percent said he would be great.

A New York Times/CBS News poll in September, conducted shortly before the pope’s first visit to the United States, found that only 29 percent of Republicans had a favorable opinion of Pope Francis, compared with 47 percent of Democrats and 46 percent of independents.

Asked about the direction in which Francis is leading the church, 41 percent of Republicans offered approval, again a smaller proportion compared with Democrats and independents.

Trump, in an interview Thursday after criticizing Francis, said he was only defending himself against the pontiff’s remarks rather than picking a fight. He said he thought his remarks would resonate with Christians not because of any hostility toward the pope, but because these voters would see Trump as standing up for Americans — even against the Vatican — when border security is at stake.

“I don’t know if it will influence many Republicans who like the pope or don’t like the pope, but what influences them is that they want a sealed border,” said Trump, who added that he was not worried about losing Catholic votes.

Trump, asked about his history of praising Putin and Hussein and criticizing figures like Francis, said he did not think he held worldviews that many Americans would find unusual. He noted that Putin had complimented him, the pope had challenged him, and he had returned their comments in kind.

“Russia has a far better leader than we have — Putin is tougher, stronger and smarter than Obama,” Trump said. “But look, the Mexican government put it into the pope’s head that Donald Trump is not a nice guy because we want to have a border again. That isn’t fair. I don’t see how I’m being tough on the pope.”