President Donald Trump is facing backlash after he posted an AI photo of himself as the Pope.
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The world leader, who is not Catholic, shared the controversial snapshot on his social media accounts over the weekend. The White House also reposted the image on its Instagram account.
Catholics and non-Catholics took to the comment sections of the posts to heavily criticize Trump for his decision to share the photo.
“You make it so hard to defend you sometimes,” one Trump supporter wrote with a crying-laughing emoji.
Another commenter wrote, “This has gone too far. Where are all my friends who tried to convince me to vote for this man? Are you awake yet? Do you have eyes to see? This is narcissism and mocking of someone’s religion.”
Others took to the comment section with a more optimistic approach to the AI image. “This isn’t offensive, it’s funny,” one commenter wrote. “My Catholic faith is first, but this is clearly a joke. And it’s funny! Light up, fellow Catholics!”
The image surfaced just days after President Trump joked about how he wanted to be the leader of the Catholic Church following Pope Francis’ Easter Monday passing.
“I’d like to be pope,” he jokingly remarked to a group of reporters last Tuesday. “That’d be my No. 1 choice.”
When asked who he would like to see become Pope Francis’ successor, the world leader referenced Timothy Dolan, the archbishop of New York.
“No, I don’t know,” he said while answering the question. “I don’t have a preference. I might say, we have a cardinal that happens to be out of a place called New York, who is very good. So we’ll see what happens.”
Catholic and Vice President JD Vance Responds to the Criticism Over Trump Posting the AI Pope Photo
Vice President JD Vance, who previously converted to Catholicism in 2019, shared his thoughts about the AI pope image through his X (formerly Twitter) account.
“As a general rule, I’m fine with people telling jokes,” he wrote about the image. “And not fine with people starting wars that kill thousands of my countrymen.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt also spoke out about the criticism President Trump was facing for the AI image.
“President Trump flew to Italy to pay his respects for Pope Francis and attend his funeral,” she said. “And he has been a staunch champion of Catholics and religious liberty.”
However, the New York State Catholic Conference condemned the social media post.
“There is nothing clever or funny about this image,” the organization stated on X. “We just buried our beloved Pope Francis, and the cardinals are about to enter a solemn conclave to elect a new successor of St. Peter. Do not mock us.”