Donald Trump has issued a fresh verbal attack against Pope Leo XIV, accusing the pontiff of "endangering a lot of Catholics" because "he thinks it's fine for Iran to have a nuclear weapon". The remarks come two days before Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, meets Leo at the Vatican in an effort to ease the tensions sparked by Trump's previous broadside against the Chicago-born pontiff over his condemnation of the US-Israeli war on Iran. "I think he's endangering a lot of Catholics and a lot of people," the US president added. "But I guess if it's up to the pope, he thinks it's just fine for Iran to have a nuclear weapon." Leo has never said that Iran should have nuclear weapons, but has repeatedly opposed the war on the country and the subsequent escalation of the conflict in Lebanon and the wider Middle East, calling for ceasefires and dialogue.