President Donald Trump posted an AI-generated image of himself as Jesus Christ on Truth Social on April 12. It was after he referred to the Pope as “WEAK on Crime.” The illustration showed him wearing a red shawl and white tunic, one hand blessing a bedridden man’s forehead, a light coming from his left hand, and bystanders looking up at him. A woman’s hands are even folded in prayer.
But by noon on April 13, that post had vanished. A “not found” message is what we get when trying to reach the link to it. The White House did not respond to questions about the image either.
This image surfaced soon after Trump posted a long Truth Social rant against Pope Leo XIV, the first American pope, who had been elected to follow Pope Francis in May 2025. He called the pope “WEAK on Crime” and “terrible for Foreign Policy.” Trump then credited himself for Leo’s election and wrote, “If I [weren’t] in the White House, Leo wouldn’t be in the Vatican.”
The ongoing conflict with Iran serves as the evident backdrop for all of this. After Trump’s comments on Iran that Pope Leo found “truly unacceptable,” specifically his threat that “a whole civilization will die tonight,” the two have been at odds. Leo praised Trump’s eventual announcement of a ceasefire. But once peace talks failed in Pakistan, Leo urged at a prayer service, “Enough of the idolatry of self and money! Enough of the war! Enough of the display of power!”
Trump then posted a photo of himself as the Son of God in retaliation.
Pope Leo has been straightforward in a way that is meant to offend Trump without giving him the sort of confrontation he wants. When asked about Trump’s platform name, Truth Social, the Pope labeled it as “ironic.” Leo said, “I have no fear with [either] the Trump administration [or] speaking out loudly about the message of the Gospel,” as he was asked about his disputes with the president. He went on to say that although he doesn’t consider his role as political, he would always speak out against war.
Trump also pointed out that Leo had met with Democratic strategist David Axelrod in his Truth Social post.
Trump-related accounts have been spreading messianic imagery of the president for years, so this Jesus image wasn’t the first. However, even some of his suporters for uncomfortable as the president had posted it himself just after criticizing a pope in office. Within minutes of the image being posted, the term “gross blasphemy” began to go viral.
The Vatican has not officially reacted to the picture at the time of writing.