The Late Show spoofed Pope Leo XIV‘s “feud” with the Trump administration Thursday night with a parody of Kendrick Lamar’s diss track “Not Like Us,” in which the “Pontiff” takes aim at the White House, saying, “They not pious.”
“You got J.D. [Vance], I got J.C., though,” the show’s Leo raps in a Chicago accent. “You keep Rubio, I ride around with the holy trio/I’m up in the Vatican, You’re still in denial/I’m the Holy See … you’re the holy senile.” And if that didn’t slam Trump enough, the faux-pe went there the same way Lamar did with Drake on “Not Like Us” with a serious allegation: “How many mentions of you in the Epstein files?/Certified bestie with that certified pedophile.”
The clip shows “senile” Trump dancing with a sword, yukking it up with Jeffrey Epstein, and sleeping. “Seems like it’s past time you retired,” Kendrick Leo raps. “Called Jesus a doctor, and it’s probably Alzheimer’s,” he says over a shot of Trump’s creepy, A.I.-generated Jesus image. It ends with the Pope declaring, “They not pious” over and over as the newly Catholic Vance crosses himself and Trump holds a Bible, ending with Trump saying, “We’re honoring Jesus Christ,” next to a person in a cartoonish Easter Bunny costume.
On Monday, Trump railed against the Pope on Truth Social. “Pope Leo is WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy,” Trump wrote as if he were campaigning against the pontiff. “Leo should get his act together as Pope, use Common Sense, stop catering to the Radical Left, and focus on being a Great Pope, not a Politician. It’s hurting him very badly and, more importantly, it’s hurting the Catholic Church!”
At issue were comments by the real Leo, the first American Pope, condemning America’s Trump-ordered invasion of Iran. “God does not bless any conflict,” the Pope wrote. “Anyone who is a disciple of Christ, the Prince of Peace, is never on the side of those who once wielded the sword and today drop bombs. Military action will not create space for freedom or times of #Peace, which comes only from the patient promotion of coexistence and dialogue among peoples.”
