Karoline Leavitt Puts Vatican on Blast as She Defends Donald Trump's 'Board of Peace' on First Day of Lent: 'It's Deeply Unfortunate'

Karoline Leavitt is not pleased with the Vatican's snubbing of Donald Trump's "Board of Peace."

The Vatican’s top diplomatic official, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, said on Tuesday, February 17, that the Vatican believes the United Nations should handle potential crisis situations after the president extended an invitation to Pope Leo to join his newly established peacekeeping committee.

When asked about the statement during a press briefing on Wednesday, February 18 — which happens to be the first day of Lent — the White House press secretary declared: "I think it’s deeply unfortunate. I don’t think that peace should be partisan or political or controversial."

"That's an unfortunate decision," she reiterated, after explaining that the "Board of Peace" was conceived to manage the rebuilding of Gaza, which has been largely destroyed in recent years due to the Israeli-Palestinian war.

"Of course the administration wants all those who were invited to join the 'Board of Peace' to join," Leavitt said. "'The ‘Board of Peace' is overseeing the reconstruction of a territory that has been plagued with violence, with bloodshed, with poverty for far too long."

"This president has a very bold and ambitious plan and vision to rebuild and reconstruct Gaza," she added.

Despite her remarks, a charter draft for the initiative makes no mention of Gaza — instead describing it as an "international organization that seeks to promote stability, restore dependable and lawful governance, and secure enduring peace in areas affected or threatened by conflict."

Moreover, Trump, 79, told reporters last month that it "might" replace the United Nations, a statement that concerned U.S. allies including France, Italy and Norway.

"The UN just hasn’t been very helpful," the president previously said. "I’m a big fan of the UN’s potential, but it has never lived up to its potential. The UN should have settled every one of the wars that I settled. I never went to them. I never even thought to go to them."

The signing ceremony for the panel at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on January 22, drew a humiliatingly small crowd with representatives from fewer than 20 countries in attendance.

While the POTUS invited dozens of countries to be members, and a senior administration official had previously predicted that 35 countries would attend the signing, only countries Middle East, Asia and South America joined.

In an awkward moment during his address at the signing, he quipped of the attendees, "I like, actually, this group. I like every single one of them. Can you believe it?" adding, "Usually I have two or three that I don’t like. I don’t find them up here."