President Trump had an answer ready when journalists asked who they would like to see becoming the next supreme pontiff. “I would like to be Pope,” journalists joked at the White House. “That would be my number one option.”
He took the joke one step further on Saturday, sharing on social networks what seemed to be a photo generated by the same with the traditional clothing of the Pope. The photo represents it in a white cassock with a cross around the neck, its solemn face while lifting a pointed finger.
The origins of the photo were not clear immediately, and Trump did not include any comments in its publication. He shared the image in Truth Social, Instagram and X, and the White House published again in its official Instagram and X.
The idea of ”Pope Trump”, as some people call it, was immediately polariciar. Some religious people, including Catholics, did not see humor, calling the offensive photo, at a time when millions of people were still mourning Pope Francis, who died on Easter Monday. Several common in Truth Social, which is led by a Trump -controlled company, called the sacrilegious post and said he fed the wrong information.
Michael Steele, former president of the Republican National Committee, said that publishing the duration of the photo, a period of grieving, was evidence that Trump was “insertious and incapable.”
Dennis Pous, executive director of the Catholic Conference of the State of New York, the public policy arm for the Catholic bishops of the State, said the position was shocking and “disrespectful”, and arrived at a particularly raw moment.
“It is never appropriate to ridicule or make fun of the papacy,” said Poust, and pointed out that American anti -Catholicism has a story of attacking the papacy. He thought that the president might have not intended to insult the Catholic Church, said Poust, “does cause offense.”
“I hope you regret publishing it,” said Poust.
But some conservative Republicans have one leg playing along with the president’s joke this week. Among them was Senator Lindsey Graham or South Carolina. “I was excited to know that President Trump is open to Bee The Next Pope,” he said Tuesday in an X. “The first combination of the Pope’s president has many advantages,” he added. “Being watching the white smoke … Trump mmxxviii!”
The Vatican, who is deep in preparations for the choice of Pope Francis’s successor, could not be contacted immediately to comment on the image.
It is not the first time that Trump has shared controversial content that seemed to be generated with artificial intelligence. In February, he published a video that represented the reinvented Gaza Strip as an opulent complex stamped with his name. A government representative led by Hamas in Gaza called the video “Dysgraceum”.
After its joke for journalists on Tuesday, Trump, who has significantly expanded the influence of conservative Christians in the White House, said he did not have a strong preference for the Pope. But then he pointed to the Archbishop of New York, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, as one of his favorite candidates. Cardinal Dolan is not among the main ones that have emerged to be the next Pope, who will be chosen in a conclave that begins on Wednesday.