On the PBS NewsHour of Friday, May 9, 2025, David Brooks and Jonathan Capehart, two pre-eminent mainstream news journalists in America, demonstrated how deeply President Donald Trump has affected the sensibilities and judgment of even the highly intelligent elites. Asked to assess the remarkable ascension of Robert Prevost from a Latin American Cardinal to the papacy, Brooks and Capehart (neither of whom is Catholic) veered off into a ditch few would have predicted.
The discussion occurred just a day after the election of Prevost, from Chicago, Illinois, as Pope. The PBS moderator, Geoff Bennett, opened the segment by declaring that Pope Leo (Prevost’s chosen moniker) had posted on social media about protecting immigrants, combating climate change, and reducing gun violence. These were signs that Leo’s ideas aligned with the Gospel, but not right-wing politics. Before the talking heads uttered an opinion, the moderator had already defined Leo as a Democrat coming to America’s rescue and the world’s relief. From the inception of TV journalism, one of its staples has been insufferable news journalists on supposedly objective news shows. On this specific evening, the nadir of this practice sank as low as this author has ever witnessed.
After Bennett’s introduction, David Brooks, a writer of incomparable skill, concluded that he found the Pope’s first remarks incredibly moving because an American on the world stage acted decently and humanely. Brooks then decided that it would be a good idea to point out that, back in 1978, when the Cold War existed, the Cardinals selected John Paul II, from Poland, and that he helped end communism. Quoting Brooks, “Now America is the most troubled nation in the world, and they selected an American who represents Catholic social teaching, who represents a series of teachings about the marginalized, about the dignity of all human people, about welcoming the stranger, and they knew what they were doing…If Donald Trump is about pagan values, about dominance, power, control, victory, conquest, here’s a guy about blessed are the poor of spirit, blessed of the meek, and that’s a complete social change and a moral challenge to Trumpism.”
One can never underestimate the wacky sanctimony of the media elite. The suggestion that the Catholic Cardinals gathered this past week to elect someone to fend off Trump challenges credulity. In their haste and effort to believe Trump and Hitler belong in the same category, people like Brooks ignore history, church practice, and the work of the Holy Spirit. When the Cardinals began their discussions after Francis’ funeral, it would be surprising if their priority was not God’s will. The unhinged members of the anti-Trump club see no other motive for a pope’s selection than to have someone who can rebuke the American president, a man so evil he selected a Catholic as his vice-president. Most people take Brooks seriously. He writes columns for The New York Times. Understanding his ideas as the rantings of a madman falls short. Sadly, they are the persistent beliefs of most American journalists who work for mainstream publications. This was not Brooks’ first foray into foolishness based upon Trump hatred, but this may have been his worst.
Not content to create this false dichotomy between the good Pope and the evil Trump, he went where few would tread, not because of fear, but because of weird assumptions. Brooks recalled the mid-20th century, when a world war was in progress. As he explained, “There was communism on one side, there was capitalism on the other side, these two machines, and the Catholics gave us a system in the middle there, which they called personalism. A guy named Jacques Maritain, Emmanuel Mounier, was a more humane version to combat the dehumanizing processes affecting the left and right.” Only an intellectual would believe this kind of bafflegab. Catholics were struggling with how poorly they had responded to Hitler, Nazism, and the Holocaust. And exactly what was the moral dilemma about communism and capitalism? How people as smart as Brooks can sound so ridiculous takes us back to Trump and how impotent the efforts by the Left or the anti-Trumpers are to respond to him. Surely, this isn’t their best!
Not to be outdone, Capehart contributed his delusional ideas after agreeing wholeheartedly with Brooks. Capehart went down the same ditch as Brooks, only faster, harder, and with increased recklessness. He saw Leo’s election as a direct rebuke to Trump. Capehart commented, “Because here you have an American Pope who is, as a leader in the world, is going toe-to-toe with the American president who, from everything we have seen, is the complete opposite of the Holy Father…what do American Catholics do when they have an American Pope who speaks the teachings of Jesus Christ…and yet they have been supporting a man who is antithetical to all of those things.” Amazing. Capehart followed the weirdness of Brooks’ comments with ideas born of such hatred that basic common sense denies them.
The Pope has no interest or desire in going into battle against Trump. Why would he? At best, the Pope will want to influence the president and will do so prudently. As for American Catholics, they watched Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi, the two most public Catholics in political life, ignore Catholic teachings all the time. How about abortion or gender theory? Some bishops have denied them communion. Trump has no claims as a Catholic. He has promised to end wars that began under previous presidents and shows little interest in foreign adventures that cost lives. The president has stood up for the Jewish people and Jewish students in America, while the Democratic Party has defended Palestinian protests that target Jews. Pro-life judges fill vacancies when the opportunity arises. Trump has even mused about redistributing income in his “big, beautiful budget bill.” How can Brooks and Capehart think of their observations as anything but partisan?
Pitting the selection of an American Pope, something Trump called a “great honour’ for the nation he leads, against the president, wreaks as a desperate effort to create heroes and villains. That’s acceptable in private publications or networks. Doing this on PBS reveals the wrong-headed and biased fake news that Trump has railed against for the past decade. Brooks and Capehart have become shameless spokespersons for the entrenched elite, who hold the coalition of Trump voters in disdain. Catholics voted for Trump, and these ad hominem attacks against him will not drive those voters away from him.
After Trump’s November election, Archbishop Timothy Broglio, the head of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, congratulated Trump in a statement: “The Catholic Church is not aligned with any political party, and neither is the bishops’ conference,” said the archbishop. “As Christians and as Americans, we must treat each other with charity, respect, and civility, even if we may disagree on how to carry out matters of public policy.” Brooks and Capehart would be wise to heed the words of Catholic leaders, including the new Pope, instead of inciting the hatred they piously assign to Trump. TDS (Trump Derangement Syndrome) finds no better home than on America’s public radio and television network. Before judging Trump, perhaps Brooks and Capehart might consider an examination of the hatred in their hearts.
Dave Redekop is a retired elementary resource teacher who worked part-time at the St. Catharines Courthouse as a Registrar until being appointed Executive Director at Redeemer Bible Church in October 2023. He has worked on political campaigns since high school and attended university in South Carolina for five years, earning a Master’s in American History with a specialization in Civil Rights. Dave loves reading biographies.
