Supporters of President Donald Trump have attacked Pope Francis after the pontiff spoke against the Republican's mass deportation plans. Newsweek has contacted the Vatican for comment via email. The fallout highlights a potential growing ideological divide between conservative Catholicism and Trump's MAGA base.

In a newly written letter to Catholic bishops in the United States, Pope Francis has strongly condemned one of Trump’s controversial policies. During Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, the pontiff said that Trump was ‘not Christian’.

Francis also appeared to take aim at Vice President JD Vance’s recent use of a medieval Catholic concept to justify the administration’s deportation policy.