Trump Cancels $11M for Catholic Charity in Miami Amid Feud With Pope

President Donald Trump on Wednesday cancelled millions in funding for a 60-year-old Catholic charity in Miami that’s helped resettle about 14,000 Cuban children in South Florida, according to the Archdiocese of Miami.

The cancellation comes a day after Archbishop Thomas Wenski (leader of the Archdiocese of Miami) rebuked Trump for disparaging remarks he made against Pope Leo XIV. Trump’s latest social media feud features what might be his biggest opponent yet: the entire Catholic Church, as clergy from all around the world responded to his most recent social media attacks. However, Wenski said during a Thursday press conference that the cancelled funds were unrelated to the dustup.

The sparring match began after Pope Leo XIV made one too many comments about God not choosing sides in war and frowning upon those who use his name to justify violence, something Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has been wont to do. Clearly unhappy with another world leader daring to question his attacks on another country, Trump responded on Truth Social (the social media site he founded).

“Pope Leo is WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy,” Trump wrote in the post about a man whose office is dedicated to peace and, specifically, is currently on a tour of Africa being chased by adoring fans. “He talks about ‘fear’ of the Trump Administration, but doesn’t mention the FEAR that the Catholic Church, and all other Christian Organizations, had during COVID when they were arresting priests, ministers, and everybody else, for holding Church Services, even when going outside, and being ten and even twenty feet apart. I like his brother Louis much better than I like him, because Louis is all MAGA. He gets it, and Leo doesn’t! I don’t want a Pope who thinks it’s OK for Iran to have a Nuclear Weapon. I don’t want a Pope who thinks it’s terrible that America attacked Venezuela, a Country that was sending massive amounts of Drugs into the United States and, even worse, emptying their prisons, including murderers, drug dealers, and killers, into our Country.”

But in the days after local clergy, including Palm Beach Diocese Bishop Manuel de Jesús Rodriguez Perez and Archbishop Wenski, chimed in supporting the pope, Trump decided to axe about $11 million in funding for a longtime Catholic charity in Miami.

In a Monday interview with The Miami Herald before the funding cut, Wenski said, “The pope doesn’t have to please anybody except the Lord,” adding that some people “will be upset” and others “will applaud what he says,” but that Pope Leo is not looking for reactions one way or another. “As religious leaders we should be political but not partisan,” Wenski said. “Politics is about how we organize society … and the church has something to say about that. What ways we can organize society that will increase human flourishing?”

The Office of Refugee Resettlement has paid Catholic Charities in Miami for years to house immigrant children entering the U.S. without parents. The charity played a massive role in the U.S. State Department’s “Operation Pedro Pan,” a clandestine immigration initiative that brought more than 14,000 unaccompanied Cuban minors into the U.S. during the rule of Fidel Castro.

The news drew criticism from some politicians, like Florida State Sen. Ileana Garcia, who accused White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller of being behind the move to cut funding. In a post on X (formerly Twitter), she wrote that he “has been fixated on the issue of unaccompanied minors for a long time. This situation presented an ideal opportunity for him. His obsession began during the first Trump administration when he was merely a speechwriter, yet he made daily calls to DHS. He’s relentlessly pursued this narrative, data at hospitals, birthright, even reaching out to agencies like DCF, the creeper is always seeking ways to shape the conversation around unaccompanied minors.

“His motivation isn’t about whether these children are trafficked or not; he simply does not want them in the UNITED STATES. In his mind, much like Hitlers, he believes he’s shaping the ideal American #Grooming His contempt for non-white individuals reveals his true character.”

Responding to an inquiry from New Times, White House spokesman Kush Desai shared an X post in which he wrote, “Our historically secure border means fewer border crossings. This is good stewardship of taxpayer dollars made possible by commonsense border policies that keep the American people safe and protect our sovereignty.”