US Vice President JD Vance has told a conservative Turning Point USA conference in Georgia that he still admires Pope Leo despite feeling “frustrated” at the pontiff’s criticism of US policies, Al Jazeera reports.

But he said the pope was wrong to say political figures should not wield the sword and that the pontiff should “be careful when he talks about matters of theology”.

“Was God on the side of the Americans who liberated France from the Nazis? Was God on the side of the Americans who liberated Holocaust camps and liberated those innocent people from those who had survived the Holocaust? I certainly think the answer is yes,” Vance said.