Trump Posts Picture of Himself as Jesus, Deletes It After Backlash While Blaming “Fake News”

Seemingly determined to alienate every segment of his base, President Donald Trump on Sunday posted an image of himself as Jesus Christ on social media — only to delete it Monday after a huge backlash.

At 9:49 p.m. Eastern time Sunday, Trump posted on Truth Social a probably AI-generated image of himself in a flowing white robe with a red sash. Light emanated from both his hands; with his right hand, he touched the forehead of an ailing man, apparently to heal him. Looking on in the foreground were a soldier, a nurse, an older man with a beard, and a praying woman. In the background was a crowd in front of symbols of the United States including a flag, bald eagles, soldiers (among other things) in the clouds, and fighter jets.

Less than an hour earlier, Trump had posted a long, scathing attack on Pope Leo XIV, calling him “WEAK on crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy.” Clearly irked over the pontiff’s opposition to his unconstitutional wars, Trump wrote:

I don’t want a Pope who thinks it’s OK for Iran to have a Nuclear Weapon. I don’t want a Pope who thinks it’s terrible that America attacked Venezuela…. And I don’t want a Pope who criticizes the President of the United States because I’m doing exactly what I was elected, IN A LANDSLIDE, to do.

The Trump-as-Jesus image apparently originated with conservative influencer Nick Adams, who posted an almost identical picture on X in February with the comment “America has been sick for a long time. President Trump is healing this nation.” (Adams was rewarded with a diplomatic post in the Trump administration.) Adams’ version depicted only soldiers in the clouds, while Trump’s replaced one of them with a menacing, horned figure.

Pillory to Post

Adams’ post was bad enough. For Trump to repost it, thereby endorsing it, was far worse, as he soon learned.

Among the earliest prominent critics of the picture was former Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene. Within an hour of Trump’s post, she wrote on X:

On Orthodox Easter, President Trump attacked the Pope because the Pope is rightly against Trump’s war in Iran and then he posted this picture of himself as if he is replacing Jesus. This comes after last week’s post of his evil tirade on Easter and then threatening to kill an entire civilization. I completely denounce this and I’m praying against it!!!

Michael Knowles, a conservative Catholic author and podcaster, took a more measured approach, posting: “I assume someone has already told him, but it behooves the President both spiritually and politically to delete the picture, no matter the intent.”

“Why? Seriously, I cannot understand why he’d post this. Is he looking for a response? Does he actually think this?” women’s sports activist Riley Gaines wrote on X. “Either way, two things are true. 1) a little humility would serve him well 2) God shall not be mocked.”

Carrie Prejean Boller, a Catholic who was kicked off Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission in February for questioning whether opposition to Zionism constitutes antisemitism, called on Catholic leaders on the commission to “resign from serving this hateful, Anti-Catholic, blaspheming President.”

“You are either siding with good or evil at this point,” she declared. “Pick a side.”

Paula, Party, and Podcastistan

More than one commentator suggested that Trump’s choice of spiritual advisors, the thrice-married, twice-divorced televangelist Paula White-Cain, may have convinced Trump that he really is the second coming of Christ.

Still others remarked on the potential political consequences of Trump’s post.

“When you divide your own party, it is self-destructive,” Congressman Don Bacon (R-Neb.) told CBS News. “To me it was a gaudy and juvenile post.”

“The media is paying attention to podcastistan breaking with Trump over Iran,” conservative podcaster Erick Erickson wrote on X. “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.”

Photographer and Physician

While everyone else understood the point of the image Trump posted — including plenty of people on social media who defended it or treated it as a joke — Trump and at least one member of his administration professed ignorance of the cause of the furor.

According to the Daily Caller, while Trump’s post was still online, White House Chief Photographer Daniel Torok, in a since-deleted X post, denied that the image depicted Trump as Jesus since it featured no “halos, no thorns, no nail marks, no angels … no long curly hair.”

“What exactly is triggering to folks here?” he asked.

Trump ultimately deleted the post Monday morning, telling reporters afterward, “I did post it, and I thought it was me as a doctor.” As to why anyone would think it depicted him as Jesus, Trump said, “Only the fake news could come up with that one.”

“It’s supposed to be me as a doctor, making people better, and I do make people better,” he added.

Trump told CBS he took the post down because “people were confused” by it. He also claimed Gaines’ opposition had nothing to do with it. Displaying his typical lack of loyalty to people who have supported him in the past — Gaines spoke in his favor at the 2024 Republican National Convention — Trump said, “I’m not a big fan of Riley.”

One doubts that, after that remark, Gaines is a big fan of Trump, either.