“Donald Trump shared a post on Truth Social threatening to release 'Vatican files' that could 'bring down' the Catholic Church.”
Verdict
❌FalseConfidence
Solid evidence with some gaps or secondary sources.
What We Found
The claim that Donald Trump shared a post on Truth Social threatening to release 'Vatican files' to 'bring down' the Catholic Church is false. The image circulating online is a fabricated screenshot.
Evidence
In April 2026, a screenshot circulated on social media platforms purporting to show a Truth Social post by U.S. President Donald Trump. The text in the image claimed that Trump had access to 'Vatican files' that could 'bring down the Papacy, the Vatican and the entire Catholic Church overnight.' Fact-checking organizations, including Snopes and Yahoo News, have investigated this claim and determined it to be false. There is no record of such a post on Donald Trump's official Truth Social account. The fabrication emerged during a period of heightened public tension between the Trump administration and Pope Leo XIV regarding the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran. While Trump did use his social media platforms to criticize the Pope during this time, the specific post regarding 'Vatican files' is a digital forgery.
What's Missing or Misleading
The claim originated from a manipulated image designed to mimic the interface of Truth Social, which was widely shared during a period of genuine political controversy between the President and the Pope.
Sources Reviewed (3)
Did Trump share post threatening to release 'Vatican files' that could 'bring down' Catholic Church?
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This fact-check was generated by automated AI research. It has not been examined by a human reviewer.