On April 12, Donald Trump shared an AI-generated picture of himself treating a sick man while wearing a white robe and having glowing hands on his Truth Social account. The scene reminded many of a Renaissance painting, with an eagle overhead, a woman praying nearby, a stumbling human body receiving healing, and holy light emanating from the president’s hands.
Trump later told reporters it depicted him ‘as a doctor.’ But University of Michigan art history professor Brendan McMahon was not convinced. He pointed out that Trump’s “doctor” excuse didn’t entirely work because a figure already wearing scrubs appears in the picture. Moreover, the president was bathed in golden light, a symbol of the divinity long used in Christian iconography.
“It’s borrowing from this long tradition of Christian imagery with Christ as healer,” McMahon explained.
The image’s background had an odd element that X users were flagging. The Statue of Liberty, fireworks, a fighter plane, and eagles are all seen nearby. And Trump, with one hand holding a glowing orb and the other on a sick man’s head, bathed in a particular light that, in a Byzantine painting or a WPA mural, would be proof of the entirety of Jesus’ imagery. Many of his supporters, including his old ally Marjorie Taylor Greene, weren’t expecting that someone would decide to include each and every one of those aspects.
Christian activist Sean Feucht, who is working on celebrations of faith for America’s 250th anniversary, called for the post to be removed immediately. Conservative activist and Trump ally Riley Gaines, according to the BBC, reminded everyone that “God shall not be mocked.” Former Republican National Committee Youth Advisory Council co-chair Brilyn Hollyhand referred to it as “gross blasphemy.”
According to Christian Broadcasting Network’s David Brody, it ‘crosses the line.’
According to Bishop Robert Barron, who serves on a council on religious liberty set up by Trump, the president owed the Pope an apology. The connection to the Pope matters in this case as the AI image surfaced less than an hour after Trump criticized Pope Leo XIV in a lengthy statement, calling him “WEAK on crime and terrible for Foreign Policy.”
Leo, the only American pope and a vocal critic of the US-Israeli conflict in Iran, announced that he had “no fear” of the Trump administration. The President of Iran also condemned the attack on the Pope and the “insult” toward Jesus.
Trump told CBS News that he took down the post because people “were confused.” When reporters asked him about the Pope, he said he had “nothing to apologize for.” The White House adopted a similar strategy when a racist video of the Obamas was uploaded to Trump’s account in February. It was first justified as an “internet meme video” but was later deleted after Republican senators opposed it.
JD Vance dismissed the image as a joke, despite the fact that eight members of Trump’s cabinet are Catholic. “Will Catholics in America choose the pope or the president?” wonders David Gibson, director of Fordham University’s Center on Religion and Culture.