A Republican lawmaker has condemned what he refers to as Donald Trump’s “holy war” against Pope Leo XIV.

Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana, a long supporter of Trump and the ultraconservative Maga movement, condemned the president’s attacks on the pope during a Fox News interview on Saturday.

“I love the president like a taco,” said Kennedy, using an odd turn of phrase. He added: “I don’t always agree with him, but I think he wants a better world. But I don’t agree with him about this new holy war with the pope.” The senator’s criticism, and his choice of words, might not sit well with Trump, given that his critics have been using the word “taco” as an acronym for “Trump always chickens out”.

Kennedy is a Methodist and not a Catholic, a point he stressed in the interview, perhaps to distinguish himself from the first Catholic president, Democrat John F Kennedy. The Republican senator and his wife founded their local church chapter, according to his government biography.

Kennedy added that he has “great respect for Catholicism” and suggested that the pope should be “entitled to his opinion”. “Why do we want to have a fight with the pope?” Kennedy continued. “It’s a distraction. And the press just sucks it up like a Hoover Deluxe [vacuum cleaner].”

Kennedy’s latest interview comes as Trump and the pope have been locked in a days-long feud over the US-Israel war against Iran.

Two weeks ago, Leo responded to Trump’s threat that a “whole civilization will die” in Iran if the country did not end its blockade of the strait of Hormuz by calling Trump’s remarks “truly unacceptable”, noted “attacks on civilian infrastructure are against international law” and urged Americans to contact their members of Congress to call for peace.

In a Truth Social post last Sunday, Trump called Pope Leo “WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy.”

Trump added: “I don’t want a Pope who thinks it’s OK for Iran to have a Nuclear Weapon.” The pope has, in fact, spoken out against what he called “the profound horrors wrought by nuclear weapons”.

The president has repeatedly praised Pope Leo XIV’s eldest brother, Louis Prevost, an avid Trump supporter who lives in Florida.

Last week, Trump also posted an AI-generated image depicting himself as Jesus Christ, which even some Christian supporters of the president denounced as blasphemous.

JD Vance, whose forthcoming book is about his recent conversion to Catholicism, has defended Trump amid anger among Christian voters. “Stick to matters of, you know, what’s going on in the Catholic church,” the vice-president told Fox News when asked if he agreed with Trump’s attacks on the pope. “And let the president of the United States stick to dictating American public policy,” Vance added.

Leo told reporters on Saturday that he had no intention of having a back-and-forth debate with Trump, but noted that he has “no fear” of the Trump administration.