President Donald Trump is responding to criticism after he posted an AI-generated image of himself as Jesus.
“I did post it, and I thought it was me as a doctor and had to do with [the] Red Cross,” Trump, 79, told reporters at the White House on Monday, April 13. “There’s a Red Cross worker there, which we support.”
Over the weekend, Trump took to his Truth Social page to share an image of himself in the style of a painting. (The post was seemingly removed from his page on Monday.)
The photo showed the president wearing a white-and-red robe as he rested one hand on the head of a man appearing to be in a hospital bed. Light hovered above Trump’s other hand, seemingly implying that he has the power to heal someone.
When asked if he was comparing himself to Jesus, Trump denied the theory.
“Only the fake news could come up with that one. I just heard about it, and I said, ‘How did they come up with that?’” he said. “It’s supposed to be me as a doctor making people better, and I do make people better. I make people a lot better.”
The controversial post came hours after Trump criticized the leader of the Catholic church, Pope Leo XIV.
“Pope Leo is WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy,” he wrote via Truth Social on Sunday, April 12. “He talks about ‘fear’ of the Trump Administration, but doesn’t mention the FEAR that the Catholic Church, and all other Christian Organizations, had during COVID when they were arresting priests, ministers and everybody else, for holding Church Services, even when going outside, and being ten and even twenty feet apart.”
Trump continued, “I don’t want a Pope who criticizes the President of the United States because I’m doing exactly what I was elected, IN A LANDSLIDE, to do, setting Record Low Numbers in Crime, and creating the Greatest Stock Market in History.”
In response to Trump’s social media post, Pope Leo said, “I have no fear of the Trump administration or speaking out loudly of the message of the Gospel, which is what I believe I am here to do.”
Pope Leo has received support from many public figures, including Marjorie Taylor Greene, Senator Mark Kelly and Piers Morgan.
“The President of the United States attacking the Pope,” Maria Shriver, an outspoken Catholic, wrote via X on Sunday. “You can’t make this up.”
Sunny Hostin, who is also a practicing Catholic, didn’t hold back when discussing the hot topic on The View on Monday. She suggested the idea of invoking the 25th Amendment to remove the sitting president.
“I think our founding fathers did a lot of things right and the 25th Amendment is there for a reason,” she said. “No one that holds that office, which is arguably the most powerful office in the world, does things like that. It’s blasphemes.”
