Donald Trump picked a fight with the Pope on Sunday night, claiming he was “WEAK on crime” and “terrible for Foreign Policy,” among a host of other wild accusations. The president immediately followed up his Truth Social post with an AI-generated image of himself as Jesus Christ, setting off a fierce debate among the MAGA faithful who are now struggling with the idea that their favorite president seems to be calling himself God.
Posting an image of yourself as Jesus Christ healing the sick is a bizarre thing for anyone to do, let alone the President of the United States. And it appears to be breaking through on conservative social media, even if right-wing TV wouldn’t touch it. Trump posted the AI Jesus image late Sunday, but Fox News didn’t mention it during its most popular morning shows on Monday.
Many of Trump’s most fervent supporters saw it on Truth Social and X, though, prompting an outcry. Christian nationalist pastor Joel Webbon wrote on X, “I genuinely believe Trump is currently demon possessed.” Webbon has previously said that women shouldn’t be able to vote and defended slavery, saying of Black people, “If slavery never happened, then you would be in a grass hut.”
Erick Erickson, the right-wing radio host perhaps most infamous for shooting a copy of the New York Times with a gun, didn’t like the AI Jesus either. He suggested that it was a much bigger story than Trump’s feud with podcasters like Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens, who’ve recently opposed Trump’s ongoing war against Iran.
“The media is paying attention to podcastistan breaking with Trump over Iran,” wrote Erickson. “What they really should be paying attention to are the Christian Trump supporters who have stood with him through Iran, who are waking up to his blasphemy. That’s a bigger issue than podcastistan.”
The AI depiction appears to have originated with Australian right-wing influencer Nick Adams, who posted the image back in February. But there is one difference. Trump’s version appears to include some kind of horned creature in the clouds. It’s unclear why Trump’s version is invoking a demon-like presence, though that has also been noticed by Trump supporters who are concerned about his blasphemy.
Turns out the original photo was posted by @NickAdamsinUSA but someone in the Trump camp decided it would be wise to alter it to add a demon and repost. 👀
Credit to: @mend_alyn for the find! pic.twitter.com/oMQExSN2Qq
— Based Millennial Mommy 🇺🇸 (@MaRy_JaNe1209) April 13, 2026
Trump was asked by a reporter about the AI Jesus image on Monday afternoon. The president acknowledged that he posted the image intentionally but denied that he was comparing himself to Jesus. Trump claimed that he was trying to depict himself as a doctor, something that’s simply not believable in any way.
“I did post it, and I thought it was me as a doctor and had to do with the Red Cross, there’s a Red Cross worker there, which we support,” said Trump.
“And only the fake news could come up with that one,” Trump continued. “So I just heard about it, and I said, ‘How do they come up with that?’ It’s supposed to be me as a doctor making people better, and I do make people better. I make people a lot better.”
Q: Did you post that picture of yourself depicted as Jesus Christ?
TRUMP: I did post it and I thought it was me as a doctor and had to do Red Cross. Only the fake news could come up with that one.
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) April 13, 2026 at 9:44 AM
Even before Trump claimed he was only supposed to look like a doctor, other Trump defenders tried to insist that he wasn’t attempting to depict himself as Jesus, which is rather absurd. Trump is seen wearing a red and white robe that virtually everyone associates with Jesus Christ. And he has light emitting from his hands as he’s healing a sick person.
There’s no shortage of potentially blasphemous material in the AI-sphere these days, with a new AI Jesus avatar getting attention last week for all the wrong reasons. Users can hold a mock video call with an AI Jesus, inspired visually by the actor Jonathan Roumie, who plays Christ in the hit biblical TV series The Chosen. Many evangelicals believe the Pope is the Antichrist, so creating graven AI images based on a show that’s popular with many Protestants hits them in a similarly blasphemous way.
While the outrage among MAGA fans to Trump’s AI Jesus was unusual, there were some who tried to defend the president’s post. Joel Berry, a former writer at the right-wing satire site The Babylon Bee, wrote, “I don’t care about the dumb AI slop post of Trump healing Uncle Sam.”
Ross Douthat, a conservative columnist at the New York Times, disagreed. “If it’s the very first commandment, it’s probably not one of the more important ones,” Douthat wrote on X. The First Commandment says, “You shall have no other gods before me.” By placing himself in the role of Messiah, Trump is calling himself not just a god, but the Christian God who must be worshiped.
Trump’s post attacking Pope Leo didn’t make much sense, since the Pontiff is a religious figure, not someone who has a crime policy that can be analyzed. But those attacks also seemed to generate concern among Catholics. The AI Jesus isn’t the first time that Trump has antagonized Christianity and Catholicism specifically. The president posted an AI image of himself as the pope back in May 2025.
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) May 3, 2025
The Pope himself, who’s originally from Chicago and became the first American Pope in history, has previously warned against the use of AI in some ways, saying that it could contribute to “greater injustice between advanced and developing nations or between dominant and oppressed social classes.” He also warned that use of AI could create a world where “human dignity and fraternity are frequently subordinated in the pursuit of efficiency.”
It’s unclear how much staying power this incident will have in the right-wing mind. Americans generally have the memory of goldfish, and the MAGAverse in particular can rationalize away plenty of heresy. When Trump was asked by reporters on Monday whether he wanted to apologize to Pope Leo, the president said he didn’t.
“No, I don’t, because, 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,” said Trump.
“I think he’s very weak on crime and other things,” Trump continued, trying to suggest that Pope Leo started this feud. “So I’m not. I mean, he went public. I’m just responding to Pope Leo. And you know, his brother is a big MAGA person, and he’s a great guy, Louis. And I said, I like Louis better than I like the Pope.”
Q: Will you apologize to Pope Leo?
TRUMP: No, because Pope Leo said things that are wrong. I think he’s very weak on crime.
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) April 13, 2026 at 9:49 AM
The post showing Trump as Jesus has been deleted from Truth Social, but his long screed attacking Pope Leo remains.
