On Sunday night, President Donald Trump posted an AI-generated image to Truth Social that showed him dressed in white robes, laying hands on a sick man, with light radiating from his palm. Bald eagles soared overhead. Fighter jets streaked across the sky. The American flag waved in the background. It looked, to virtually everyone who saw it, like Trump had posted a picture of himself as Jesus Christ.
By Monday morning, the image was gone. But the fallout was just getting started.
What the Image Actually Showed
Let’s be specific about what people saw before it disappeared. The AI-generated image depicted Trump in a white robe and red sash — the exact outfit associated with virtually every painting of Christ you’ve ever seen in a church or a grandmother’s living room. His right hand rested on the forehead of a man who appeared to be sick or dying in a hospital bed. His left hand held a glowing ball of light. Behind him: the Statue of Liberty, bald eagles, military aircraft, and the Stars and Stripes.
The image was actually a slightly altered version of one originally posted months earlier by right-wing influencer Nick Adams, who Trump appointed in March as special presidential envoy for American tourism, exceptionalism, and values. When Adams first shared it, he wrote: “America has been sick for a long time. President Trump is healing this nation.”
The timing of Trump’s repost made it even more combustible. It landed on Orthodox Easter — one week after most American Christians had celebrated the resurrection of Christ. And it came less than an hour after Trump went on a social media tirade against Pope Leo XIV.
Trump’s Explanation: “I Thought It Was Me as a Doctor”
Standing outside the West Wing on Monday, Trump offered reporters what might be the most creative interpretation of a white robe and healing light in the history of image analysis. “I did post it, and I thought it was me as a doctor, and had to do with Red Cross, as a Red Cross worker there, which we support,” Trump said.
He added: “Only the fake news could come up with that one.”
He then doubled down: “It’s supposed to be me as a doctor, making people better. And I do make people better. I make people a lot better.”
In a CBS News interview, Trump explained why he ultimately deleted the post — something he rarely does. “Normally I don’t like doing that, but I didn’t want to have anybody be confused. People were confused.” That’s one way to describe the reaction.
His Own Supporters Turned on Him
This wasn’t a situation where only Democrats and media critics piled on. The backlash came hard and fast from Trump’s own base — the people who normally defend every post, every rally quip, every late-night Truth Social rant.
Fox News contributor Riley Gaines wrote that she “cannot understand why he’d post this” and that “God shall not be mocked.” Former Bush White House press secretary Ari Fleischer, also a Fox News contributor, called it “inappropriate and embarrassing” and “offensive.”
Conservative Catholic podcast host Michael Knowles wrote that “it behooves the President both spiritually and politically to delete the picture, no matter the intent.” Daily Wire columnist Megan Basham called it “OUTRAGEOUS blasphemy.” Her colleague Isabel Brown said it was “disgusting and unacceptable.”
Former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene — who resigned from Congress earlier this year after a public falling out with Trump — called the post “an Antichrist spirit.”
One commenter on Truth Social who demanded Trump take down the photo and “offer an apology to Christians for this mockery” racked up more than 9,000 likes on the platform.
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.”
About the only prominent Trump ally who waved it off was Laura Loomer, who said people “crashing out over a meme need to chill out.”
JD Vance Called It a Joke
Vice President JD Vance went on Fox News to do what vice presidents do: clean up the mess. “I think the President was posting a joke and of course he took it down, because he recognized a lot of people weren’t understanding his humor in that case,” Vance said.
He framed Trump’s social media presence as a feature, not a bug. He “likes to mix it up on social media,” Vance said, calling it “one of the good things about this president” that “he’s not filtered.”
Vance — himself a Catholic convert — has been in this spot before. In May 2025, Trump posted an AI-generated image of himself dressed as the pope shortly after Pope Francis died. That one drew condemnation from Cardinal Timothy Dolan. Vance dismissed it then too, saying he was “fine with people telling jokes.”
The Pope Fight That Started It All
The Jesus image didn’t happen in a vacuum. Trump posted it less than an hour after launching a broadside against Pope Leo XIV on Truth Social, calling the leader of 1.3 billion Catholics “WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy.” Trump added: “I’m not a big fan of Pope Leo.”
The tensions between the two had been building for months. Leo — the first American-born pope — had criticized Trump’s mass deportation policies and, more recently, had held a prayer vigil calling for peace amid the U.S. and Israel’s military conflict with Iran. Trump had threatened that “a whole civilization” would be destroyed if Tehran didn’t comply with his demands.
Leo wasn’t rattled. Speaking to journalists aboard the papal flight to Algiers, where he was beginning an 11-day visit to four African countries, Leo responded: “I have no fear neither of the Trump administration nor of speaking out loudly about the message of the Gospel.”
When asked if he’d apologize to the pope, Trump said no. “Pope Leo said things that are wrong. He was very much against what I’m doing with regard to Iran, and you cannot have a nuclear Iran.”
Catholic Leaders and Politicians Fired Back
Archbishop Paul Coakley, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said he was “disheartened” by Trump’s “disparaging words about the Holy Father.” Archbishop George Leo Thomas of Las Vegas said he was “grateful to God for sending us Pope Leo XIV.” Bishop Robert Barron, who actually serves on a Trump-created religious liberty commission, said on X that the president owed the pope an apology.
On Capitol Hill, the reaction was just as intense. California Rep. Ted Lieu referenced both the picture and the “deranged attack on Pope Leo,” writing: “The American President is not well.” Kentucky Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear criticized the image and Trump’s comments about Iran, calling them: “Not American. Not Christian. Not presidential.” House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries wrote: “Donald Trump shamefully attacked His Holiness Pope Leo XIV.”
Even Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni — a right-wing leader generally seen as friendly to Trump — called the attack on Pope Leo “unacceptable.”
GOP Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska didn’t mince words either: “I know he’s trying to be funny, but it was a foolish post. When you divide your own party it is self-destructive. To me it was a gaudy and juvenile post.”
A Pattern That Keeps Repeating
This was described as a “comparatively rare and rapid walkback” for Trump, who almost never deletes anything. But it’s not the first time his AI image habit has caused problems. In February 2026, Trump shared a racist video depicting former President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama as apes. That one stayed up for nearly 12 hours before being deleted — and the White House ultimately blamed a staffer.
The Jesus image also echoed remarks made at an Easter lunch on April 1 by Paula White-Cain, Trump’s spiritual adviser and head of the White House Faith Office. White-Cain told Trump: “Mr. President, no one has paid the price like you have paid the price. You were betrayed and arrested and falsely accused.” Conservative commentator Allie Beth Stuckey pointed directly at that dynamic, writing: “That image is what happens when Paula White is your personal pastor and people around you are continually comparing you to Christ.”
At the same Easter luncheon, Trump himself said “They call me king now” while discussing Jesus entering Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. Those remarks were posted to the White House YouTube page and later removed.
Why This One Stings More Than Usual
Trump won Catholic voters 56 percent to 42 percent in the 2024 election. His administration is filled with prominent Catholics — Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, first lady Melania Trump. The administration has stated it wants to eradicate “Anti-Christian Bias.” Picking a fight with the pope while simultaneously posting yourself as Jesus is, strategically speaking, not a great way to keep that coalition together.
A Newsweek/NBC poll now shows Americans view Pope Leo more favorably than Trump — 23 percent see Leo very positively and only 8 percent view him negatively, while Trump sits at 41 percent favorable and 53 percent unfavorable.
Faith-based MAGA influencer Steve Deace, who is scheduled to speak at Turning Point USA’s pastors’ summit, put it as plainly as anyone: “Trump is absolutely right about this pope, but he should consider that he is walking into a trap. Asking one of the pivotal voting blocs in America to choose any politician over the most venerable office of their religion is a very tough ask.”
It was a doctor image, Trump insists. Just a Red Cross thing. But he deleted it anyway — because, as he put it, “people were confused.” That might be the most honest thing anyone said about the whole episode.
