In May 2025, following the appointment of Pope Leo XIV, a video (archived) circulated on social media that purported to show the pontiff criticizing U.S. President Donald Trump's immigration policies.
The video originated on TikTok. It also circulated across X (archived) and Facebook. Snopes readers also wrote in to ask if the video was authentic.
The video, in which the pope allegedly called Trump's policies "a hideous manifestation of white supremacist ideology" is fake, in this case meaning digitally altered. A TikTok creator who shared a popular version of the video labeled it as generated by artificial intelligence and removed the video after the publication of this article. Aside from the creator's label, the video depicted the pope with an accent he does not have in real life and altered the movement of his mouth, causing it to move in unrealistic ways.
The full video transcript read:
Trump, the immigration policies you've implemented are a blatant trampling on both the teachings of the church and the promises of the American dream. You've made a big show of declaring a state of emergency at the border, dispatched the military to enforce the law there, canceled birthright citizenship and even had law enforcement officers barge into places like churches and schools which are supposed to be inviolable to arrest illegal immigrants. You're turning the United States into a country that has no room for tolerance, going completely against the diversity that the U.S. has always advocated. In order to win those so-called votes and pander to some extreme voters, you've resorted to all means to create external enemies and have intensified social conflicts. All of your actions are a hideous manifestation of white supremacist ideology. What's more, the incident of you accepting an airplane from the cartel is truly despicable. Such behavior of yours has seriously damaged the image of public officials. You're simply using your power as a tool to seek personal gains. I, Robert Prevost, firmly oppose everything that you stand for. Every single thing you've done is dragging the United States into the abyss of darkness and undermining the very foundation of this country. You must take responsibility for your actions and the American people…
Aside from this being an unusually long statement from a pope in English — most papal speeches are in Italian, the lingua franca of Vatican City of which the pope is head of state — the voice also did not sound like Leo's.
The pope started a May 12 address to members of the media in English before delivering the main part of his speech in Italian. Leo had a notably different accent in the authentic footage posted by Vatican News, the news portal of the Holy See, than that heard in the TikTok video.
The TikTok video's visuals were likely based on footage of the actual May 12 address. The TikTok video showed Leo wearing the same clothes and jewelry against an identical backdrop to that in the May 12 video posted by Vatican News.
In addition to the likely fake audio, the fake TikTok video also altered the movement of Leo's mouth. The effect was hard to notice except for a few frames in which Leo's mouth appeared to intersect with the microphone in front of him or moved around on his face in an unnatural way.
(TikTok user @grv12095oio/Snopes Illustration)
The flaw was visible in the moving footage around the 00:05 mark, when Leo's mouth was visible behind the microphone in front of him as he moved his head down and again around 00:11.
Somewhat ironically, Leo's May 12 address included remarks on artificial intelligence and the importance of "responsibility and discernment" with regard to the technology.
Pope's brother said pontiff 'not happy' with US immigration policy
Though the video featured in this particular claim was fake, speculation around the pope's political leanings started swirling shortly after his appointment.
In a May 8 interview with The New York Times, Leo's brother John Prevost addressed speculation on the pope's view of immigration, saying:
I know he's not happy with what's going on with immigration. I know that for a fact. How far he'll go with it is only one's guess, but he won't just sit back. I don't think he'll be the silent one.
Discussions about the pope's opinions on topics including immigration also centered on a now-deleted X account with the handle @drprevost that posted under the name Robert Prevost (Leo's name before he became pope).
Both AP and Reuters reported that the account belonged to Leo. According to The New York Times, the account was linked to a phone number and email address "believed to be tied" to Leo. Snopes has not independently verified whether the now-deleted account belonged to the pope.
Notably, the @drprevost account shared an article titled "JD Vance is wrong: Jesus doesn't ask us to rank our love for others" after U.S. Vice President JD Vance attempted (archived) to invoke (archived) the Catholic concept of "ordo amoris," translated into English as "order of love" or "order of charity," to argue that Americans must look after family, neighbors, community and countrymen before "the rest of the world."
His past statements and actions suggest that immigration and helping the needy is a top-of-mind issue for Leo. According to Caritas, a Catholic humanitarian aid network, Leo sat on the Caritas Peru Board of Directors between 2022-2024.
During a 2024 sermon at St. Jude's Church in New Lenox, Illinois, Leo, then Prevost, talked about migrants arriving in the Italian town of Lampedusa and the importance of respect when solving the "problem" of migration. Leo said:
There's gotta be a way both to solve the problem but also to treat people with respect. Every one of us, whether we were born in the United States of America or on the North Pole, we all are given a gift of being created in the image and likeness of God and the day we forget that is the day we forget who we are, who Christ has called us to be.