- Trump’s post shows him in a white robe with his hand on a man’s head.
- Some followers criticized the image, which was later deleted.
- Pope Leo says he is not afraid of the Trump administration.
US President Donald Trump posted an AI-generated image of himself as a Jesus-like figure on Sunday, drawing widespread criticism even from some religious conservatives who normally support him, before deleting the post on Monday.
The post on Trump’s Truth Social platform, which Trump later said was intended to portray him as a doctor, came amid his escalating dispute with Pope Leo, who has criticized the war that began with the US and Israel’s attacks on Iran as inhumane. Shortly before posting the image, the president published a long speech against Pope Leo, calling him “WEAK on crime and terrible for foreign policy.”
Leo, the first American-born pope, said in response to Trump’s attacks that he was “not afraid” of the Trump administration and would continue speaking out. In a powerful speech Monday in Algiers, he denounced “neocolonial” world powers that are violating international law, without specifically referring to the United States.
Sunday’s post, which shows Trump in a white robe with an apparent healing hand on the head of a supine man, could drive a wedge between Trump and the religious right, whose support was critical to his victory in the 2024 election.
In the painting-like image, Trump holds a glowing sphere in one hand and uses the other to touch the forehead of an apparently sick man. In the background you could see the Statue of Liberty, fireworks, a fighter plane and eagles.
Trump denied on Monday that the image was intended to show him as a Jesus-like figure.
“I, as a doctor, am supposed to be the one who makes people better, and I actually make people better,” he told reporters at the White House, shortly after the post was deleted.
Brendan McMahon, a professor of art history at the University of Michigan, found that explanation “very suspicious” given that the image depicts another figure in a robe and because Trump appears bathed in a bright light used to signify the divine in countless works of religious art over several centuries. Light also emanates from Trump’s hands in the image.
“It’s about borrowing from this long tradition of Christian imagery with Christ as the healer,” McMahon said. “Stylistically, it seems like he’s aiming for the social realism of the interwar period in the United States, like the WPA murals, images about enfranchising working-class Americans.”
Brilyn Hollyhand, who served as co-chair of the Republican National Committee’s Youth Advisory Council, had a harsher critique, writing in
Riley Gaines, a former college swimmer and outspoken critic of transgender athletes in women’s sports who has appeared with Trump at rallies, wrote on X that she couldn’t understand why Trump posted the image.
“Do you really think this?” she wrote. “Either way, two things are true. 1) a little humility could do with you 2) God is not to be mocked.”
Christian voters, including Catholics, have formed a critical part of Trump’s political base. Trump, who does not regularly attend church, won a large majority of Christian voters in the 2024 election, including Catholics, who had previously been closer to a divide.
After Trump narrowly survived an assassination attempt in July 2024, some evangelical supporters said it was evidence that he had been blessed by God.
Trump feud could test loyalty of Catholic voters
David Gibson, director of the Center for Religion and Culture at Fordham University, a Catholic school, said it was difficult to understand Trump’s motive for attacking Leo and posting the image, but it was also difficult to say whether American Catholics would turn against him.
“Will this move cross a red line for them? Will they finally punish Trump and the Republican Party at the polls?” said. “This is a decisive moment: will Catholics in the United States elect the Pope or the president?”
Bishop Robert Barron, who sits on a religious liberty commission created by Trump, said on X that the president owed Leo an apology for his “inappropriate” remarks on social media. But he also praised Trump in the same post for his outreach to Catholics.
Trump told reporters on Monday that he had “nothing to apologize for” to the Pope.
In recent weeks, Leo has become one of the most prominent critics of the war in Iran, even making a rare direct appeal to Trump and urging him to find an “off ramp.”
Tensions deepen between Trump and the Vatican over Iran
Leo has also said that Jesus cannot be used to justify war and that God rejects the prayers of those who start conflicts.
Those comments were widely seen as a rebuke of Trump officials such as US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who cited Scripture to justify the use of “overwhelming violence” against enemies and compared the rescue of an American airman inside Iran to the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Trump also occasionally feuded with Leo’s predecessor, Francis, who publicly opposed Trump’s deportation campaign as a non-Christian. Last year, after Francis’ death, Trump posted an image depicting himself as pope, sparking outrage among many Catholics.
But Trump’s attacks on Leo have gone far beyond his attacks on Francis.
“American presidents and American Catholics have disagreed with popes in the past,” Gibson said. “But this is disrespect. Disrespect is very different from disagreement, and that’s the danger for Trump here.”
At least eight members of Trump’s Cabinet are Catholic, including Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Vance, speaking with Fox News Channel “Special Report with Bret Baier,” downplayed the image of Jesus and said Trump did it in jest. Vance added that sometimes it is better for the “Vatican to stick to questions of morality.”
