Two days after Pope Leo XIV released his first encyclical, it’s clear: the 42,300-word document hit a nerve — even inside the Trump administration.
Burgum Mocks, Vance Praises
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum didn’t hold back: ‘I didn’t know that tech editorializing was part of the role of being pope.’ A clear dismissal. But from another corner of the administration came a very different take: Vice President J.D. Vance called the parts he’d read ‘very profound.’
This open disagreement within the White House is remarkable. It shows that the AI debate is no longer just a tech question — it’s become a political fault line.
Anthropic Caught in the Middle
The fact that Anthropic co-founder Christopher Olah helped unveil the encyclical alongside the Pope makes things even more charged. Anthropic has been at odds with the Trump administration for months, ever since the company refused to give the Pentagon unrestricted access to Claude.
The Vatican’s choice of Anthropic wasn’t coincidental. The Chicago-born Pope and President Trump disagree on multiple fronts — from the Iran war to AI regulation. Olah used the stage to make a pointed statement: ‘Every frontier AI lab, including Anthropic, operates inside a set of incentives and constraints that can sometimes conflict with doing the right thing.‘
The Encyclical’s Core Message
‘Magnifica Humanitas’ calls for stronger AI oversight and warns that the technology could displace workers, deepen inequality, and put lethal weapons decisions beyond human control. Time ran a headline calling the encyclical ‘a rejection of Trump’s AI approach.’
Whether the Pope’s warning will have political consequences remains to be seen. But the fact that it’s splitting the most powerful government in the world says a lot about where the AI debate stands in 2026.
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