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Donald Trump defended a post deleted from his Truth Social platform that depicted him as a Jesus-like figure on Monday following a backlash from some of his most prominent allies on the religious right.
The US president, hours after the image was removed, told reporters he thought the image had portrayed him as a doctor.
“I did post it, and I thought it was me as a doctor, and had to do with Red Cross,” Trump said outside the Oval Office. “It’s supposed to be me as a doctor, making people better. And I do make people better. I make people a lot better.”
Trump late on Sunday posted what appeared to be an AI-generated image of himself in flowing white and red robes, healing a sick man in a bed. In the image, a Christ-like Trump was flanked by followers, an American flag and bald eagles, a national symbol of the US.
Trump posted the image less than an hour after he published a lengthy criticism of Pope Leo XIV to social media, accusing the head of the Catholic Church of being “weak” on crime and “terrible” for foreign policy.
The posts sparked near-immediate outrage, including from many of the president’s most ardent Catholic and evangelical supporters, who accused Trump of blasphemy.
Michael Knowles, a Catholic conservative commentator, said in a post on X: “I assume someone has already told him, but it behooves the President both spiritually and politically to delete the picture, no matter the intent.”
Riley Gaines, the conservative activist and White House ally known for her opposition to the participation of trans women in women’s sports, questioned why the president had posted the image.
“Seriously, I cannot understand why he’d post this. Is he looking for a response?” Gaines said in a post on X. “Does he actually think this? Either way, two things are true. 1) a little humility would serve him well 2) God shall not be mocked.”
Marjorie Taylor Greene, the former Republican Congress member who left the House of Representatives this year after falling out with Trump, said the image was “more than blasphemy” and an “Antichrist spirit”.
Sunday’s post was not the first time that Trump has attracted outrage among religious supporters for his use of AI-generated images.
Days before Pope Leo was selected as leader of the Catholic Church, Trump posted an image of himself as the pontiff. Cardinal Timothy Dolan, then the archbishop of New York, at the time said the post “wasn’t good,” adding: “I hope he didn’t have anything to do with that.”
The president’s latest war of words with the pope marks a sharp escalation of tensions between the White House and head of the Church, who has been outspoken in his criticism of the US-Israeli war against Iran and the administration’s heavy-handed immigration enforcement tactics.
Pope Leo on Monday morning said he had “no fear” of the Trump administration and would continue speaking out “loudly against war”.
Trump later told reporters he did not owe the pontiff an apology, saying: “There’s nothing to apologise for. He’s wrong.”
Senior US officials have defended their actions, both at home and abroad, in religious terms. Defence secretary Pete Hegseth last week said US bombing raids in Iran had been carried out “under the protection of divine providence”.
At a press conference in Hungary last week, vice-president JD Vance, a convert to Catholicism, was asked about the administration’s claims that God supported the war. “My attitude towards military conflict has always been to pray that we are on God’s side,” Vance said. “I certainly hope that God agrees with the decision that Iran shouldn’t have a nuclear weapon.”
Additional reporting by Amy Kazmin in Rome and Steff Chávez in Washington
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