A CNN guest sparked debate after claiming that Pope Leo XIV, former President Barack Obama, and CNN political analyst David Axelrod are working together to hurt President Donald Trump’s support among Catholic voters ahead of the midterm elections. The claim came during CNN’s NewsNight as the feud between Trump and the Chicago-born pope continued to intensify.
The guest, Hal Lambert, is the founder and CEO of an investment firm that runs a MAGA-themed exchange-traded fund. According to Mediaite, he pointed to a recent visit by Axelrod to the Vatican, where he met privately with Pope Leo XIV on April 9. Lambert also noted that Obama had publicly said he wants to meet the pope. Both Obama and Axelrod have deep ties to Chicago, as does the pope, who was born there as Robert Francis Prevost.
Lambert laid out what he described as a coordinated effort. “Play out the dots here,” he said on air. “David Axelrod goes and visits Pope Leo last week. They’re talking about Obama going to visit Pope Leo. Pope Leo is from Chicago. All of a sudden, now, Pope Leo is out attacking Trump and the policies of the United States.” He went on to say, “This is 100% political. This is all about trying to hurt President Trump’s Catholic vote during the midterms.”
The whole Chicago angle is pretty thin when you look at the full picture
Host Abby Phillip pushed back immediately, telling Lambert there were “just a lot of flaws in this argument.” CNN commentator Bakari Sellers offered a simpler explanation for why all three men share a connection: “Because he’s from Chicago.” Phillip also pointed out that the late Pope Francis had met with Vice President JD Vance, and that Francis had also been critical of Trump.
The broader context makes the conspiracy claim harder to take seriously. Pope Leo has been openly critical of Trump’s policies for months, long before Axelrod’s Vatican visit. He spoke out against the administration’s mass deportation campaign and, more recently, called Trump’s threat to destroy “a whole civilization” in Iran “truly unacceptable.”
The pope, speaking to reporters on Monday aboard his flight to Algeria, said plainly, “I’m not afraid of the Trump administration or of speaking out loudly about the message of the Gospel.” Axelrod, for his part, has said very little about the meeting. He described it as “very personal” and said it had been arranged months in advance.
The Vatican has not provided any details about what was discussed. What is clear is that Trump’s attacks on the pope have drawn sharp criticism from Catholic bishops across the United States, with many church leaders publicly siding with Leo over the president.
Trump called Leo “WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy” in a Truth Social post on Sunday. According to CNN, he also posted an AI-generated image of himself dressed in biblical robes, which many Christians, including some Trump supporters, called inappropriate. Trump deleted the image and later claimed he thought it showed him as a doctor. Experts say the attacks are already hurting Trump with Catholic voters.
Andrew Chesnut, who chairs Catholic studies at Virginia Commonwealth University, said that Trump’s approval among white Catholics had dropped from 59% in February 2025 to 52% by January 2026. He added that no major Catholic leader had publicly defended Trump’s attacks on the pope. The pope feud is just one of several fronts where Trump has faced pushback recently, as his relationship with key European allies has also come under strain.
Published: Apr 14, 2026 12:45 pm