US President Donald Trump is facing growing backlash after posting an AI-generated image of himself as a Jesus-like figure and launching a series of social media attacks on Pope Leo XIV, drawing criticism from across the Christian political spectrum.
The image, shared on Trump’s Truth Social platform on Sunday and deleted on Monday, showed him in a white robe placing a hand on a man’s head in a scene resembling a healing.
It was posted after a separate message in which Trump criticised the pope, calling him “weak on crime” and “terrible for foreign policy”.
Later, Trump told reporters that, though he had posted the image, he thought it depicted him “as a doctor”.
“And had to do with the Red Cross as a Red Cross worker, which we support. And only the fake news could come up with that one,” he said.
He also said he does not “want a Pope who criticises the President of the United States”.
“I don’t want to get into a debate with him,” Pope Leo said on Monday en route to Algiers, where the first US-born pontiff is beginning an 11-day visit to four African countries.
“I will continue to speak out loudly against war, looking to promote peace, promoting dialogue and multilateral relationships among the states to look for just solutions to problems,” Pope Leo said.
“Too many people are suffering in the world today. Too many innocent people are being killed. And I think someone has to stand up and say there’s a better way.”
Tensions between the White House and the Vatican have been building for months, particularly over the US administration’s hardline immigration policies, its military actions, and the US-Israel war on Iran.
Senior Catholic leaders in the US also pushed back against Trump’s remarks on the pope.
“I am disheartened that the President chose to write such disparaging words about the Holy Father. Pope Leo is not his rival; nor is the Pope a politician,” Archbishop Paul S Coakley, president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, said in a statement.
“He is the Vicar of Christ who speaks from the truth of the Gospel and for the care of souls,” Coakley added.
In Las Vegas, Archbishop George Leo Thomas said he was “grateful to God for sending us Pope Leo XIV, who is willing to speak truth to power just when we need him the most”.
“Pope Leo is calling for dialogue over diatribe, prayer over politics, and diplomacy above destruction,” Thomas added.
Internationally, Trump’s remarks have also drawn condemnation. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said the US president’s attack on Pope Leo was “unacceptable”.
“I find President Trump’s words towards the Holy Father unacceptable. The pope is the head of the Catholic Church, and it is right and normal for him to call for peace and to condemn every form of war,” she said in a statement.
The backlash was not limited to church leaders, with several conservative figures also criticising Trump’s posts, particularly the AI-generated image.
Brilyn Hollyhand, a former co-chair of the Republican National Committee Youth Advisory Council, wrote on X:
“This is gross blasphemy. Faith is not a prop. You don’t need to portray yourself as a saviour when your record should speak for itself.”
Riley Gaines, a FOX News host, a former collegiate swimmer and outspoken critic of transgender athletes in women’s sports who has appeared with Trump at rallies, also questioned the post.
“Does he actually think this?” she wrote. “Either way, two things are true: 1) a little humility would serve him well, 2) God shall not be mocked.”
Megan Basham, a columnist for the conservative outlet Daily Wire, described the post as “OUTRAGEOUS blasphemy”.
“I don’t know if the President thought he was being funny or if he is under the influence of some substance or what possible explanation he could have for this,” she wrote.
She demanded Trump “take this down immediately and ask for forgiveness from the American people and then from God”.
Isabel Brown, also of the Daily Wire, said the image was “disgusting and unacceptable”, adding that “nothing matters more than Jesus” and arguing it reflected a misunderstanding of what she described as a renewed embrace of Christian faith in the United States. – Al Jazeera.
