In late May 2026, some people on social media shared what appeared to be a screenshot of a post (archived) that supposedly appeared on U.S. President Donald Trump's Truth Social account. The post in the screenshot read"
I am ready to fight Pope Leo in a CAFE FIGHT too! He acts like he is BETTER THAN ME!! He ranks himself above God! When I am done with him, they will BOTH be beneath me!!!
At the time the purported Trump post was making the rounds, a UFC fighting cage was under construction on the South Lawn of the White House for a match on June 14 — Trump's 80th birthday.
The claim also spread on Threads (archived) and Instagram (archived). Snopes readers sent us emails and searched the site wondering whether the screenshot was of a real Trump post.
The screenshot did not show an authentic Trump post. In fact, it was originally labeled as a satirical post and included some clear giveaways that it wasn't real. Therefore, we've rated the claim as labeled satire.
Just to be sure the post or one similar to it didn't exist, Snopes looked for evidence of it via Google searches, a review of Trump's Truth Social account and an archive of Trump's Truth Social posts.
A Google search for "trump pope leo cage fight" did not return credible news reporting about Trump challenging Leo to a cage fight. Searches for "pope leo cage fight" limited to Truth Social and Trump's Truth Social account specifically were entirely devoid of results. The post did not appear on Trump's Truth Social account. No such post could be found in a search for "cage fight" or "pope" in the Trump's Truths archive.
The earliest version of the screenshot we could find was the post from the Facebook page "Denmark," which is not associated with the government of Denmark and is labeled a "digital creator" by Facebook. The hashtag "#satire" appeared within the post. The same hashtag was included when the screenshot was reposted to Instagram.
The Denmark page posted its satirical screenshot the same day it posted a similar faked Trump post challenging former President Joe Biden to a cage fight (archived) and an AI-generated image of a trashed White House lawn (archived) with a UFC octagon cage at its center. All three posts bore the #satire hashtag.
Finally, the font of the Leo cage fight post didn't match the usual font of Truth Social posts, as can be seen in this post. The fabricated screenshot also lacked the timestamp and buttons normally visible on Truth Social posts. We broke down what a normal Truth Social screenshot should look like in a previous article.
Snopes has debunked similar pieces of media before. For example, we previously alerted readers to a fake post in which Trump allegedly said, "Nobody knows God better than me."
Because the effectiveness of satire is subjective, we use "originated as satire" or "labeled satire" ratings based on creators' description of their work. It's your call on whether you agree.