Better Than Pope Leo XIV? Texas Pastor Cites Romans 13 to Defend Donald Trump's Iran Policy

Robert Jeffress has argued on Fox News that Donald Trump shows a better grasp of Romans 13 and the Bible's teaching on government than the pope, using scripture to defend the president's Iran policy during a televised interview in the United States.

The exchange followed comments from the pope about global conflict that Trump allies treated as a rebuke of US policy. The pontiff had spoken about a world 'ravaged by a handful of tyrants' without naming governments, while Trump had already begun criticising him over Iran and framing Vatican concerns as naïve.

The Texas minister told Fox News that President Donald Trump has a better 'understanding' of the Bible than the pope, describing the Vatican's comments on Iran as contradictory. Jeffress said the disagreement was a matter of doctrine, arguing that scripture places clear expectations on political leaders confronting hostile regimes.

Robert Jeffress, the Southern Baptist pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas, and a regular Fox News contributor, defended Trump in his feud with the pope, citing a Bible verse. He has frequently appeared on television and at political events as a prominent supporter of Trump.

Pastor Backs Trump's Iran Policy

'And you know, the great irony is it looks like President Trump has a better understanding of what the Bible teaches about the role of government than the pope has, and I'm glad the president hasn't backed down at all,' Jeffress Jr. insisted in a Fox News interview. He did not set out a list of papal lines he thought were wrong, and there has been no direct reply from the Vatican addressing his comparison between Trump and the pope.

'Look, I think it's commendable that the Trump administration is meeting with the pope and trying to work with the pope. The pope is a good man. He's sincere in his faith, but he is sincerely wrong when it comes to Iran,' Jeffress Jr. said. 'The pope ought to know, and I think he does know, God created both the church and government for two distinct purposes.'

'The role of the church is to point people to faith in Jesus Christ, but the role of government is to protect citizens from evildoers, according to Romans 13,' he continued. By invoking Romans 13 on air, Jeffress grounded his defence of Trump in a New Testament passage often used in arguments about obedience to authority, and presented it as a simple mandate for leaders to confront threats such as Iran rather than a text open to debate.

He then described a meeting at the White House. 'And look, 3 days after this conflict began, I was in the Oval Office with President Trump and a few other faith leaders, and he told us that Iran was within weeks of getting a powerful weapon that would destroy Israel, much of the Middle East, and could bring great harm to America.'

'And he had no choice but to act, and I thanked him then for having the courage to fulfill his God‑given responsibility to protect our nation,' the pastor said. His account of the Oval Office conversation is based on his own recollection of what Trump told him, and no supporting intelligence documents were produced during the Fox News segment to back the specific timeline he quoted.

The Pope Row Over Iran

For context, Romans 13 is frequently cited in disputes about how far Christians should support government action. Jeffress's summary on Fox was that the role of government is to protect citizens from evildoers, and he used that phrase to justify Trump's stance on Tehran. Critics in Christian theology have long argued that applying Romans 13 to complex situations such as sanctions, covert operations or military strikes requires careful interpretation, and some warn that the passage has been used in history to defend authoritarian rule, though those debates did not feature in the interview.

Jeffress's comments landed as Trump was sharpening his language about the Vatican. This week, Trump sent Marco Rubio as an envoy to Italy to meet with the pope, apparently asking him to pass along a message from the United States leader. Only the broad outlines of that meeting have been described publicly, with no full transcript of the exchange released by either Washington or the Holy See.

Trump told reporters he had asked Rubio to say to the pontiff, 'very nicely, very respectfully, that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon'. He added that the envoy should also tell the pope that Iran had killed '42,000 innocent protesters who didn't have guns.' Trump did not point to a public source for that number in his remarks, and rights organisations have not confirmed that exact total, leaving the figure unverified.

The president has recently called the pontiff 'weak on crime' and accused him of 'endangering a lot of Catholics' because he supposedly thinks 'it's fine for Iran to have a nuclear weapon.' The pope, in turn, delivered a speech about the world being 'ravaged by a handful of tyrants' without naming Trump, the United States or Iran. His words have since been read in sharply different ways, with Trump supporters saying he meant hostile regimes such as Iran, and critics of Washington hearing an implied rebuke of aggressive foreign policy.

Jeffress Sets Trump Against the Pope on Scripture

The news came after months in which Jeffress had already been an outspoken defender of Trump's foreign policy from the pulpit and on air. He has praised Trump's decisions on Israel and wider Middle East strategy, often describing them as part of a God‑given role for the president, and his latest Fox appearance about Iran and Romans 13 fits into that pattern of casting Trump's choices as obedience to scripture.

In the interview, Jeffress presented Trump's actions on Iran as unavoidable. He told viewers that the president 'had no choice but to act' once he believed Tehran was close to obtaining a devastating weapon, and said he personally thanked Trump in the Oval Office for meeting what he called a biblical responsibility to protect the nation. He did not spell out which specific steps he meant, whether sanctions or other measures, and he did not address objections from church leaders who view preventive attacks as inconsistent with just‑war principles.

So far, there has been no detailed, line‑by‑line response from the Vatican to Jeffress's use of Romans 13 or to his claim that Trump understands the Bible better than the pope. Catholic teaching on war and peace, including the just‑war tradition, has often emphasised restraint, proportionality and last resort. That framework sits uneasily beside the broader role for government force implied in Jeffress's brief television remarks, even if the programme itself did not explore that tension in depth.

Jeffress's defence of Trump ultimately relies on trust in the president's assessment of the Iranian threat and on his own interpretation of scripture. With no declassified evidence supporting the exact weapons timeline described in the Oval Office anecdote, no public confirmation of the protest death toll Trump cited, and no direct Vatican rebuttal of Jeffress's theology, many of the pastor's claims about Iran and the Pope's stance remain unverified and should, for now, be taken with a grain of salt.