President Donald Trump shared a picture Friday depicting him because the pope.
The picture, which seemed to be generated by synthetic intelligence, arrived mere days after Trump jokingly instructed reporters he would “like to be pope” himself, following the death of Pope Francis final month.
The picture appears impressed by conventional papal portraits: It shows Trump in full papal regalia, replete with an embroidered pope’s hat and his index finger lifted on the sky — a gesture that seems to imitate the hand of benediction steadily utilized in spiritual blessings.
The 78-year-old MAGA chief posted the picture on his Truth Social platform round 10:30 p.m. ET. It was later reshared by the official White House account on a number of different platforms, including Instagram, Facebook and X, formerly Twitter, to hundreds of baffled reactions.
“The place do you even start with this?” wrote one user on X, with one other particular person commenting more directly: “A ‘Pope trump’ can be the primary Pope in historical past unable to recite a single Bible verse, and even recount his favourite half, aside from Two Corinthians.”
Trump was famously stumped by an easy question about the Bible throughout his first presidential marketing campaign in 2015, despite frequently presenting himself as devout. He appeared to neglect to place his hand on the Bible as he was being sworn in earlier this 12 months.
The convicted felon, whose marital infidelity was on full show throughout a historic hush money trial final 12 months, launched mass deportations shortly after assuming workplace. Pope Francis rebuked the policy as a “major crisis” mere weeks earlier than dying on Easter Monday.
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Requested final week who he thought ought to succeed Pope Francis, Trump told reporters: “I’d wish to be pope.” Whereas he went on to present a extra critical reply afterward, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) later stated in a put up on X the papal conclave should “keep an open mind” concerning the thought.
“Day-after-day is extra absurd than the final,” one person tiredly concluded.
“Donald Trump simply posted a photograph of himself because the Pope. It’s full-on lunacy at this level,” wrote the Republicans Against Trump group, with another user writing: “I actually thought this was pretend! Unreal! He really did this! Nothing surprises me anymore.”
Others are extra irate than bewildered, and are taking the put up as an affront to their religion.
