Nick Catoggio on Monday:
Last are the loyalists, the Christians who even now will dutifully heed his call to treat the head of the Catholic Church as MAGA’s newest us-and-them enemy. In fact, I wonder if the Jesus image inadvertently made that easier by giving them a way to hedge their coming attacks on Leo. (“I didn’t like the Jesus meme, to be clear, but he has a point about the pope.”) Many evangelicals are destined to fall into this group, some because of old axes to grind with Rome and others because they’ve already transitioned to treating evangelicalism as a political identity rather than a religious one.
Trump is the head of their church, and if he says Leo is a blasphemer, that’s canon.
I can confirm that this bears out. For example, I revisited my Catholic friend the other day, who sang to the exact tune of a good loyalist.
“What do you think about the Trump-Pope battle?”
Long silence.
“Well… I think that people have different opinions. And some people come to those opinions for different reasons. And some of those reasons are good reasons and people can disagree….” And after that disclaimer went on for a few more sentences, the answer came as, “But I do think that the Pope is being a little too political. And I didn’t like him meeting with David Axelrod.”
“What did you think about the meme?”
“Oh I thought that was inappropriate.”
Summary: I didn’t like the Jesus meme, to be clear, but Trump has a point about the pope.
You really can observe the internal struggle to come to terms with her newfound loyalty. And this is from a devout Catholic. You can imagine how much easier this all is with my evangelical friends who hold not a single high view of Catholicism to begin with.
I’ve made jabs at Jordan Klepper before. His show is or was titled “Jordan Klepper Fingers the Pulse.” Hilarious, I guess. Except that Jordan Klepper does no such thing. He finds something like a pulse that fits his joke then blows it up for his audience with his camera and editing crew. I am neither equating nor equivocating when I say that on the list of things demolishing the West, you can write Jordan Klepper’s name — and Seth Meyers and Steven Colbert, as far as I’m concerned — right in there with Donald Trump’s.
But that’s a pet peeve and a digression.
I almost quit Catoggio a couple years ago. Not because I’m not equally or close to equally cynical but because I am equally or close to equally cynical. And what cynical man needs even more cynicism? But I haven’t quit reading him and one reason is this: I have found few people who more regularly and accurately do have a finger on the pulse of American politics.
Here’s Catoggio yesterday:
For a megalomaniac like Trump, there can be no greater test of loyalty for devout Christians who support him than asking them to take his side in a moral dispute with the most authoritative Christian on Earth.
And, with no exceptions, the most powerful Christians in his orbit have.
I still think that at some point — when the cost is negligible, of course — many will decamp and I’ll have to pretend alongside them for the sake of peace that they never really supported it.
But for now, as the good Senator Gracchus knew, he gives them what they’ve wanted — and they still love it.
To borrow from Russell Moore: “Did I say ‘someone’? I meant, I could shoot Jesus himself on Fifth Avenue and not lose a single supporter.”
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Addendum (that I actually meant to go search for yesterday) — Here’s Catoggio in his May 9th, 2025 newsletter:
America is poised to do a lot of damage to the world in its death throes as a liberal society and global power, and not just material damage. Trumpism will have a malign moral influence on the world as liberalism’s discontents abroad look to it for political inspiration. …
Shouldn’t the Catholic Church, of all institutions, be proactive in trying to limit that malign influence?
Trumpism has always been best understood as a moral project, not as an ideology. It’s too dependent on the president’s daily whims to be a coherent political program, but its moral vision is clear and consistent: “Strength” is the cardinal virtue and unapologetic ruthlessness in advancing one’s interests is the way in which that virtue is practiced. I wouldn’t equate it with “might makes right” because it expresses no interest in the concept of “right,” only in what might be gained in any situation.
[…]
Any influential American who’s not openly on the side of MAGA is a provocation to the president, but until now he’s always had options to neutralize the threat. If you make trouble for him he can revoke any federal privileges you might enjoy, shrink your customer base by blackballing your company from government work, or whip up his fans to threaten your life.
There’s not much he can do to silence a pope, though, and that will eat at him. The mere fact that he now has an immigrant-loving rival for the title of Most Influential Living American will irritate his tender ego and eventually trigger his impulse to try to dominate those who threaten him. He will pick a fight with the pope, as totally moronic as the idea of such a thing is, because that’s who he is. The church provoked him by offering a different model of moral leadership to Americans and tacitly inviting them to pledge their allegiance to it. They’re coming after Trump’s people. He’ll take it personally.
But this is what happens sometimes between rival religions, right? Because they worship different gods, they fight.