Donald Trump posted an AI-generated photo of himself seemingly dressed as Jesus Christ shortly after slamming Pope Leo XIV as “weak.”
On Sunday night, Trump posted a tirade on Truth Social about Pope Leo — the first American to be chosen for the position — who has been vocally opposed to the war in Iran as well as the president’s immigration policy. “Pope Leo is WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy … I don’t want a Pope who thinks it’s OK for Iran to have a Nuclear Weapon,” Trump wrote. “I don’t want a Pope who thinks it’s terrible that America attacked Venezuela, a Country that was sending massive amounts of Drugs into the United States and, even worse, emptying their prisons, including murderers, drug dealers, and killers, into our Country. And 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.”
Trump continued that to claim that Pope Leo “was only put there by the Church because he was an American, and they thought that would be the best way to deal with President Donald J. Trump. If I wasn’t in the White House, Leo wouldn’t be in the Vatican.”
Trump’s comments came about an hour after a “60 Minutes” segment aired on the Pope and U.S. cardinal’s opposition against the war in Iran and Trump’s immigration policies. The Pope also made headlines last week when he denounced Trump’s threat to Iran that “a whole civilization will die tonight,” calling it “truly unacceptable.” He then called on people “to contact the authorities, political leaders, congressmen — to ask them, tell them, to work for peace and to reject war always.”
Trump then posted an apparently AI-generated photo of himself seemingly dressed as Jesus, healing a sick man as doctors and members of the military watch in pride.
Screenshot courtesy Truth Social/@realdonaldtrump
His comments on Leo as well as the photo of himself in Christ’s likeness drew immediate criticism from prominent members of the Catholic Church. “Not even Hitler or Mussolini attacked the Pope so directly and publicly,” Massimo Faggioli, an expert on the papacy, said in a statement to Reuters.
On Monday morning, Pope Leo responded to Trump’s comments in a statement to the Associated Press. “To put my message on the same plane as what the president has attempted to do here, I think is not understanding what the message of the Gospel is,” he said. “And I’m sorry to hear that but I will continue on what I believe is the mission of the church in the world today.”
Leave a Reply