Tuesday, May 6, 2025 - US President Donald Trump has addressed the backlash over an AI-generated image portraying him dressed as the Pope, which was posted on his Truth Social account last Friday and later reshared by the White House on X.
The image sparked criticism from the Catholic Conference of
New York State, which issued a statement condemning the post. “There is nothing
clever or funny about it,” the group said. “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.”
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt defended the
President, stating that Trump had traveled to Italy to pay his respects to the
late Pope Francis and has consistently supported Catholics and religious
liberty.
On Monday, during a press event in the Oval Office announcing
the 2027 NFL Draft, Trump was asked about the criticism from Catholic leaders
and Christian groups. He dismissed the backlash, attributing it to media
distortion.
“You don’t mean the Catholics — you mean the fake news media.
The Catholics loved it,” Trump said. “I had nothing to do with it. Somebody
made up a picture of me dressed like the Pope and put it out on the internet.
That’s not me that did it. I have no idea where it came from. Maybe it was AI,
but I know nothing about it.”
He added that he first saw the image on Sunday evening. “My
wife thought it was cute,” he said.
Trump even joked about the idea of becoming Pope, noting, “To
the best of my knowledge, Popes aren’t big on getting married. Are they? Not
that we know of.”
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