Leo flew into the oil-rich country from Cameroon, where he ended his visit with a huge public mass.
After landing at an airport in the capital, Luanda, he travelled in his popemobile to meet President Joao Lourenco with hundreds of cheering and waving people lining his route.
On the plane to the southern African country, Leo told journalists that he regretted the remarks he had made during his tour had been interpreted as a response to criticism from Trump, insisting he had no interest in debating the US leader.
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An example was a speech about “tyrants” ransacking the world that he delivered in Cameroon on Thursday, on the second leg of the trip, he said.
The remarks had been written well before Trump’s “comment on myself and on the message of peace that I am promoting,” he said.
“And yet it was perceived as if I were trying to start a new debate with the president, which doesn’t interest me at all,” Leo said.
“Much of what has been written since then has been more commentary on commentary, trying to interpret what has been said,” he said.
Leo had blasted “tyrants” while on a high-security visit to Cameroon’s northwestern city of Bamenda, the epicenter of a nearly decade-long English-speaking separatist insurgency that has killed thousands.
The remarks were interpreted by the media in particular as a reference to Trump.
But Leo insisted that “there’s been a certain narrative that has not been accurate in all of its aspects.”
Trump had said on April 12 he was “not a big fan of Pope Leo,” and accused his fellow American of “toying with a country (Iran) that wants a nuclear weapon.”
He later doubled down with a post on Truth Social, saying, “Pope Leo is WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy.”
