Mike Johnson Says Pope Was Asking for Trump’s Bonkers Attacks

House Speaker Mike Johnson has come out on the side of the White House in its recent aggression toward the Vatican, suggesting that Pope Leo XIV had it coming.

“A pontiff or any religious leader can say anything they want, but obviously if you wade into political waters, I think you should expect some political response and I think the pope has received some of that,” Johnson said Wednesday.

Last week, reports emerged that the Pentagon had openly threatened an ambassador of the Holy See in January, days after the pope made antiwar remarks during his State of the World address. In the days since that report, Donald Trump has fired off several antagonistic comments against the leader of the Catholic Church, repeatedly trying to sour the pope’s reputation by claiming that Leo is “terrible for foreign policy” and “weak on crime.” That is despite the fact that religious leaders are neither responsible for foreign policy nor in charge of lowering crime rates.

“I was taken a little bit aback, just honestly, frankly, by something that he said, I think he said several days back, something about ‘those who engage in war, Jesus doesn’t hear their prayers’ or something,” Johnson continued.

The Republican House leader was referring to the pope’s Palm Sunday Mass, in which the pontiff said that “Jesus is the King of Peace, who rejects war, whom no one can use to justify war. He does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them.”

Johnson went on to preach against the highest Catholic’s teachings, claiming that it’s a “very well settled matter of Christian theology” that war is sometimes justified, and invoking the “just war” doctrine within military ethics.

The House speaker added that Iran was the “largest sponsor of terrorism” in the world and that the Trump administration’s siege had potentially saved “millions of innocent people” from “being killed by terrorists.”

The war has so far cost the lives of more than 3,000 people in Iran, including dozens of political leaders, reported Reuters. At least 13 U.S. soldiers have also been killed, and nearly 400 have been wounded, according to U.S. Central Command.

Meanwhile, gas prices in the U.S. have surged beyond $4 a gallon. In five states—California, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington—gas has risen above an average of $5 a gallon. The soaring price has driven up the cost of practically everything else, as inflated transportation and shipping costs get off-loaded to the customer.

Trump imposed a formal blockade on the Strait of Hormuz, a vital oil tradeway between Iran and Oman, on Tuesday, and has promised repeatedly that the war is “very close to being over.” In the same breath, however, he added that his administration is “not finished” with Iran.

“We’ll see what happens,” Trump told Fox Business anchor Maria Bartiromo Wednesday.