US President Donald Trump posted a seemingly artificially enhanced photo of himself as the pope on Truth Social on Friday night. This comes days after he jokingly expressed his desire to be Pope.
The White House also reposted the image.
Pope Francis, the 88-year-old leader of the Catholic Church, passed away last month. According to a death certificate released last week, he suffered a stroke and heart failure. President Trump was among the world leaders who attended the pope’s funeral.
Following Trump’s posting of an AI-generated image of himself dressed in papal attire, several social media users criticized him for mocking the pope’s death.
One user expressed their deep disrespect, stating, “This is disrespectful to the church and God himself. He’s literally the antichrist.”
Another user found the image disgusting and entirely offensive.
A third user tweeted, “This is extremely disrespectful and narcissistic. Republicans really voted for that.”
Another user commented, “How disrespectful to Catholics. That’s what Trump and his followers are all about—disrespect, meanness, and stupidity. How dare you mock the process we Catholics go through to elect a new pope.”
Recently, when asked by a reporter who he would like to succeed Pope Francis, the 78-year-old president immediately quipped, “I’d like to be Pope. That would be my number one choice.”
He further added, “I have no preference. I must say, we have a cardinal who happens to be from New York who’s very good, so we’ll see what happens.”
