- Trump’s post depicts him in a white robe with his hand on a man’s head.
- Some followers criticized the photo, 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 typically 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 feud with Pope Leo, who has criticized the war, which began with US-Israeli attacks on Iran, as inhumane. Shortly before releasing the photo, the president issued a lengthy screed against Pope Leo, calling him “WEAK on crime and terrible on foreign policy.”
Leo, the first American-born pope, said in response to Trump’s attacks that he had “no fear” of the Trump administration and would continue to speak out. In a powerful speech Monday in Algiers, he condemned “neo-colonial” world powers that violate international law, without specifically referring to the United States.
Sunday’s post, depicting Trump in a white robe with an apparent healing hand on a man’s head, could drive a wedge between Trump and the religious right, whose support was crucial to his 2024 election victory.
In the painting-like image, Trump holds a glowing orb in one hand and uses his other hand to touch the forehead of an apparently sick man. The Statue of Liberty, fireworks, a fighter jet and eagles could be seen in the background.
Trump denied on Monday that the photo was supposed to show him as a Jesus-like figure.
“It’s supposed to be me as a doctor making people better, and I’m making people better,” he told reporters at the White House shortly after the post was deleted.
Brendan McMahon, an art history professor at the University of Michigan, found this explanation “highly suspect” since the image depicts another figure in the thicket and because Trump is depicted bathed in a bright light used to denote the divine in countless works of religious art throughout the centuries. Light also comes from Trump’s hands in the picture.
“It borrows from this long tradition of Christian imagery with Christ as the healer,” McMahon said. “Stylistically, it seems to be in the direction of interwar stateside social realism, like WPA murals, pictures about enfranchising working-class Americans.”
Brilyn Hollyhand, who served as co-chair of the Republican National Committee Youth Advisory Council, had a sharper critique, writing on X: “This is gross blasphemy. Faith is not a prop. You don’t need to portray yourself as a savior when your record speaks for itself.”
Riley Gaines, a former collegiate swimmer and outspoken critic of transgender athletes in women’s sports who has appeared alongside Trump at rallies, wrote X that she could not understand why Trump posted the photo.
“Does he really believe this?” she wrote. “At least two things are true. 1) a little humility would serve him well 2) God is not to be mocked.”
Christian voters, including Catholics, have made up a critical part of Trump’s political base. Trump, who does not attend church regularly, won a large majority of Christian voters in the 2024 election, including Catholics, who had previously been closer to a split.
After Trump narrowly survived an assassination attempt in July 2024, some evangelicals said it was proof that he had been blessed by God.
The Trump feud could test Catholic voter loyalty
David Gibson, the director of the Center for Religion and Culture at Fordham University, a Catholic school, said it was hard to understand Trump’s motive for attacking Leo and for posting the photo, but it was also hard to tell whether American Catholics would turn against him.
“Will this move cross a red line for them? Will they finally punish Trump and the GOP at the ballot box?” he said. “This is a watershed moment – will Catholics in America choose the Pope or the President?”
Bishop Robert Barron, who serves on a Trump-created religious freedom commission, said on X that the president owed Leo an apology for his “inappropriate” statements 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 an unusually direct appeal to Trump, urging him to find an “exit.”
Tensions between Trump and the Vatican deepen 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 remarks were widely seen as a rebuke of Trump officials such as US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who has 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 clashed at times with Leo’s predecessor, Francis, who publicly opposed Trump’s deportation campaign as a non-Christian. Last year, after Francis’ death, Trump posted a photo showing himself as the pope, sparking outrage from many Catholics.
But Trump’s attacks on Leo have gone far beyond his tirade against Francis.
“American presidents and American Catholics have had disagreements 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 to Fox News Channel “Special report with Bret Baier,” downplayed the Jesus-like image, saying Trump made it in jest. Vance added that sometimes it was better for “the Vatican to stick to questions of morality.”
