This is not a failure of courage alone. It is the result of a structural failure in neoliberalism. When an ideology reduces all human decisions to those around wealth accumulation and treats morality as an economic externality, like climate change, and so as something to be ignored, it inevitably produces politicians who literally cannot make ethical judgments. Right and wrong become irrelevant categories. Ends justify the means. And the poor pay the price.

The Pope's message is of good news for the poor and freedom for the oppressed. Trump's agenda is the precise opposite. That one religious leader can see this clearly while secular governments cannot tells you everything about what neoliberalism has done to political life, and why reclaiming ethics as the foundation of politics is not a religious question. It is an urgent economic and social issue.

This is the audio version:

This is the transcript:

Why has no one stood up to Donald Trump? No one, that is, except the Pope. That contrast matters to me. That is the question I'm asking in this video. What is the difference between the behaviour of the Pope and that of all our neoliberal politicians?

As the Financial Times has noted, “At a time when there is no single voice of opposition to Trump at home or abroad, the first US-born Pope's attack on the administration's policies could have significant electoral consequences in his native country while risking political peril for the president.”

This issue does then matter, although, let's be clear about this: the Financial Times claim isn't entirely true. There have been some other people who have spoken about Trump and what he's doing.

Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has, for example, spoken quite clearly, saying, “We should not applaud those who set the world on fire only to show up with a bucket of water to fix it.” That's pretty damning.

And let's be clear, Giorgia Meloni in Italy has also been critical of Trump. She's refused the USA the right to use Italian air bases for its bombing raids on Iran, and she has defended the Pope from the criticism that Trump has made of him, but that has had limited impact, as have the comments of Pedro Sánchez. So the wider silence is what we need to note.

There is very little criticism going on of Donald Trump. It's reserved, at best, and lacking in substance, and the UK example stands out. We still talk about a special relationship with the USA, even though Trump is very obviously waging an illegal war. We are sending the King for a state visit later this month, which is going to be deeply embarrassing for everybody, and our Deputy Prime Minister, David Lammy, goes off for a visit to see JD Vance in his office and talks about Vance as his friend. That makes no sense at all in the current environment, but let's note it. Even China has stood back. It's had an admiral issue a veiled threat about blockages to Chinese oil flows, but that's about it. There's been no direct attack on what Donald Trump is doing, even though he has almost single-handedly, if we excuse the support of Benjamin Netanyahu, sought to upset the whole world economy.

But Pope Leo XIV has spoken quite directly.

Perhaps that's because he's Chicago-born.

Perhaps that's because he understands the culture from which Trump comes.

Perhaps that's why he disagrees with him.

But he has delivered a fearless gospel-based criticism of Trump, and that marks him out as being the one and only in the world who has been noticed for taking on Trump on the basis of the ethical stance that Trump has taken, or rather the absence of an ethical stance within what Trump has done.

Popes have criticised wars before. Let's be clear. We know that, and condemnations are not new, but this is different. This is quite different, for example, from previous criticism by popes of Israel's actions when attacking Gaza. This is a direct attack by a US-born pope on a US president, and that is unprecedented.

Now, let me be clear, I'm not defending the Catholic Church when I'm making the comments that I do in this video. There are faults in the Catholic Church. It has its own problem with the far-right, of course. Opus Dei is an organisation that needs to be tackled within that church, which has a far-right inclination, but this Pope has acknowledged that and is confronting it. So the Catholics know there are issues. It's not an innocent organisation.

Nor am I making these comments to promote Christianity. I'm looking at a man here, and I am looking at his ethical framework. That is what matters to me. I'm looking at a man acting on his beliefs, and that focus is what I think matters at this moment because what the Pope is saying is that Trump and Netanyahu are wrong. He's using, as his guidance, the teachings within the gospels. He is a man of faith. He has bought a creed, he believes in it, and he's talking about it. That gives him the opportunity to express clear ethical judgment.

This Pope has a capacity, based upon his understanding of his faith and a set of teachings, to draw a line that says there is a difference between right and wrong. He is putting morality into action by using the guidance of his faith to permit judgment in a way that provides him with the courage to stand up to the most powerful man in the world, as most people would recognise, and faith informs that decision.

Politicians are not doing this. Neoliberal thinking doesn't let them do this. There are very few non-neoliberal politicians in the world that we now notice. All of them believe that power and wealth are what matter in the world that we are living in. They dispense with ethical judgment because they think “ends justify means” in a worldview based upon neoliberalism, where all that matters is the accumulation of wealth, whether that be for themselves, as in the case of Donald Trump, or in the case of the countries that they govern, in the case of many others.

They think that conduct undertaken to achieve this goal is of no consequence. They think it's irrelevant. They believe that the goal of wealth accumulation replaces morality in their worldview, and morality is just treated as another economic externality, like climate change, which they don't have to take into consideration when forming their judgements, or worrying themselves about before they go to bed at night.

Ethics are removed from their politics, as a consequence. Growth at any cost is the only known mantra within neoliberalism, and the concepts of right and wrong are totally ignored, as is humanity ignored, as is the planet ignored. “Means”, as I've noted before, are simply justified by “ends” in their worldview.

And this is something that is the result of a long-term shift in politics. This was not the case when I was young. I do think at that time, politicians who had seen service in the Second World War did understand what ethics and morality were all about. They might not have been Christians; that didn't matter. They did know the difference between right and wrong; they had fought for it. And then, along came Margaret Thatcher. She might have arrived in Downing Street, quoting a prayer from St Francis of Assisi as she went through that famous front door for the first time, but the words she spoke were then trashed by her actions.

It became totally apparent that words have become meaningless in this form of politics, and Trump has exposed that system now for all that it is: a world of meaningless gestures, a world of meaningless words.

And others may not be quite as extreme as Trump is, but they're still complicit in this neoliberal construct. They will provide their quiet acquiescence to what he's doing because they lack the ability to form ethical judgments.

Evil is, as a result, going unchallenged. That's the point that I'm making here. In a world of politicians who don't know the difference between right and wrong, they do not know how to identify, speak out about, or condemn evil when they see it, and it is evil that Donald Trump is doing. He is undertaking an illegal war that is not justified and which is causing death and disruption, and potential famine to the world at large. That is what this Pope can see which others cannot.

I do suspect that it is that Chicago background that does inform where he stands. He's willing to be tough. He's willing to stand up. He can withstand the criticism. He says he's fearless, and he knows that against someone like Trump, saying such things matters, because he knows that Trump thinks that everyone will bow down and worship him, and the evidence is that the world's leaders are not challenging him, which confirms Trump's worldview.

In the case of the Pope, that is not what he's willing to do, and his insight does, as a result, matter. His ethical framework is intact despite the attacks from Trump on what he is saying. His moral courage is still present. He has freedom from fear, and he is willing to condemn as a result.

He has called out evil. He has said that the prayers of those who wage war will not be answered by God, and he, more than anyone, will, as a former leader of the Augustinian movement of friars, understand exactly what Saint Augustine's concept of a just war was, and he does know that what Donald Trump is waging is, by the concepts put forward by Saint Augustine, far removed from the idea of a just war.

Worryingly, other church leaders have been silent. For example, our new Archbishop of Canterbury in the UK appears to have said nothing on this issue, or if she has, the world has not noticed, and they would notice simply because she's the first ever female Archbishop of Canterbury, but she hasn't seized the moment. She's failed to speak out in the way that the Pope has. Faith is not being acted upon in her case, and that contrast also matters.

Faith, in my opinion, does require action. Until I understood that, faith was something I didn't understand. It's not an issue just of belief, as far as I'm concerned. Faith without action is meaningless. Ethical demands are made when you have a faith, and it must be lived by; that is the test that those who profess a faith must follow. It's no good going to church on Sunday or to the confessional on some other day of the week, if you're a Catholic, and saying you are very sorry for everything and going back and carrying on. No, the test is, will you live by the prescription of the teachings to which you say you subscribe?

The Pope is; Trump is not. Vance is not; others in the US regime, and I think that's the right word for it, you could call it an administration if you want, but I think Trump has a regime and not an administration; they also are not living by what they profess to be their faith.

I view all of this through a personal perspective. I'm a Quaker, I'm a member of the Quakers, and the Quaker perspective lets me determine what I think is important in life. I think equality matters. I think economic simplicity matters, that is, living within our means. That is consistent with what I say about how we manage inflation. I think that truth matters. I think that peace matters. All of those things are the basis of the ethic which I use to inform how I behave in life.

I do not think that life is compartmentalised so that I can leave ethics at the door when I come to work. That's not an option that's available to me. I think ethics are lived daily, and I think I'm seeing that in the behaviour of this Pope.

He is reflecting lived ethics. Jesus said he brought good news for the poor and freedom for the oppressed. That is his gospel message, and the Pope's saying that Trump is doing the opposite.

The Pope has called him out on that basis. He is saying Trump is not delivering good news for the poor. He's delivering good news for the rich, and he is actively oppressing in a way that will deliver harm to the poor and remove any chance of freedom for many. That is why the Pope's standing alone in the world. That's why we should applaud him, and at a time when there are very few champions for the poor and the oppressed in this world, Leo XIV looks like one. For that reason, I applaud his move.

That's what I think. You may differ. That's your right. If you do, leave us a comment down below. Take part in our poll. Like this video and share it, if that's what you wish to do. Please subscribe to our channel because it helps with YouTube, and if you'd like to make a donation to support our work, we would be incredibly grateful.

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