President Donald Trump shared a picture Friday depicting himself because the pope.
The picture, which seemed to be generated by synthetic intelligence, arrived mere days after Trump jokingly informed reporters he would “wish to be pope” himself, following the dying of Pope Francis final month.
The picture appears impressed by conventional papal portraits: It shows Trump in full papal regalia, replete with an embroidered mitre on his head and his index finger lifted on the sky — a gesture that seems to imitate the hand of benediction regularly utilized in spiritual blessings.
The MAGA chief posted the picture on his Fact Social platform round 10:30 p.m. ET. It was later reshared by the official White Home 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, apart from Two Corinthians.”
Trump was famously stumped by a straightforward query in regards to the Bible throughout his first presidential marketing campaign in 2015, regardless of regularly presenting himself as religious. He appeared to neglect to position 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 cash 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.
Requested final week who he thought ought to succeed 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 mentioned in a publish on X the papal conclave ought to “hold an open thoughts” in regards to the concept.
The distinction between Trump — who personally assaults his political opponents, berates international leaders on tv and posts footage of drone bombings on social media — and the selflessness popes are likely to exhibit actually hasn’t escaped social media customers.
“Daily 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 publish as an affront to their religion.
