Pope Leo's Sly Plans On Trump's Birthday Have Everyone Calling Out The Shade

Donald Trump's pricey birthday plans are nothing if not controversial. The president will be celebrating the big 7-9 with an event right out of the fascism handbook: a big military parade. While the parade will be on June 14, which is Trump's birthday, it is actually meant to be in celebration of the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army. Still, if it looks like a big over-the-top, unsettling birthday celebration and walks like a a big over-the-top, unsettling birthday celebration, it's probably... well, you get the idea. As such, plenty of folks are taking issue with the upcoming event — and it seems Trump's big day might be getting some subtle pushback from a rather unlikely source: none other than Pope Leo XIV.

Trump managed to make Pope Leo's election about himself, and it seems the new pope is now returning the favor. Pope Leo is a big fan of The White Sox, so the team will be celebrating him with a Catholic Mass and special event at Rate Field. Pope Leo, himself, will be providing a "special video message to the young people of the world," per Block Club Chicago. The special event will be taking place in the afternoon on June 14. Coincidence? We think not. And neither do plenty of folks on the internet.

Vice President JD Vance was already being embarrassed by the new pope mere minutes after Pope Leo XIV earned his title. Folks online quickly discovered Pope Leo was a pretty outspoken Vance hater. So it's not too surprising that the pope might want to steal attention away from President Donald Trump's big celebration. After all, the Bible says, "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit," and that pretty blatantly goes against a big military birthday parade, per The Boston Pilot. Plus, that's barely scratching the surface of things Trump regularly says and does that go against Pope Leo's beliefs. Even so, it's unorthodox for the pope to deliberately attempt to overshadow a president's event. Yet netizens are loving the idea that this might be precisely what he's doing.

"I'm sorry, but I can't stop laughing about the fact that the Pope is now holding a huge event in Chicago on the same day as Trump's small-in-the-pants birthday parade," one X user wrote. "Is this the ultimate scheduling troll by the Pope?" one commenter asked. "Not Catholic but I'm really liking this new Pope," another user said with a laughing emoji. "I do not think his holiness thinks this is a competition, but I also think he will win without even playing the game, just for being a better human being," said another. So it seems that whether this scheduling conflict is deliberate or not, people are loving it.