‘Clown’ Donald Trump slammed for AI-generated pope post
Donald Trump has been called “a clown” for posting an image of himself as the pope.
The AI-generated picture caused anger ahead of this week’s gathering of cardinals at the Vatican to choose a new leader of the 1.4-billion-strong Catholic Church.
It comes just days after the U.S. president joked that he would “like to be pope”.
Trump, who is not a Catholic and does not attend church regularly, posted the image on his Truth Social platform late on Friday, less than a week after attending the funeral of Pope Francis, who died aged 88 on Easter Monday.
The White House then reposted it on its official X account.
The image shows an unsmiling Trump seated in an ornate chair, dressed in white papal vestments and headdress, with right forefinger raised towards Heaven.
The irreverent post drew instant outrage, including from Republicans Against Trump, a group that describes itself as “pro-democracy conservative Republicans fighting Trump & Trumpism.”
The group reposted the image on X, calling it “a blatant insult to Catholics and a mockery of their faith.”
Vatican spokesperson Matteo Bruni declined to comment on the image during a briefing with journalists about the process of electing a new pope, which begins on May 7.
Former Italian prime minister Matteo Renzi wrote on X: “This is an image that offends believers, insults institutions and shows that the leader of the global right enjoys being a clown.
“In the meantime, the American economy risks recession and the dollar loses value.”
Closer to home, the Catholic bishops of New York state also expressed their displeasure.
“There is nothing clever or funny about this image, Mr President,” they wrote on X.
“We just buried our beloved Pope Francis and the cardinals are about to enter a solemn conclave to elect a new successor of St Peter. Do not mock us.”
Trump on Tuesday had jokingly said he would be his own first choice to become the next pope, before adding that there was a “very good” candidate in New York, Cardinal Timothy Dolan.
Dolan, the Archbishop of New York, is not on the shortlist of possible contenders, but it does include another American, Cardinal Joseph Tobin, Archbishop of Newark, New Jersey.
There has never been a pope from the United States.
Reacting to the meme in West Palm Beach on Saturday morning as she waited for Trump’s motorcade to arrive at his golf club, local resident Debbie Macchia, 60, said: “He was clearly joking. Clearly joking.
“But I wouldn’t want to see them do anything sacrilegious with the pope, or anything.”
In mid-February, both Trump and the official White House social media accounts posted a different AI-generated image of the president that drew criticism because it depicted him wearing a crown, widely interpreted as implying he believed he enjoyed the powers of a king.
“CONGESTION PRICING IS DEAD. Manhattan, and all of New York, is SAVED,” it was captioned. “LONG LIVE THE KING!”
