On Friday night, former U.S. President Donald Trump shared an AI-enhanced image of himself dressed as the pope on Truth Social, just days after joking that he would “like to be Pope.”
The White House also reposted the image. Pope Francis passed away last month at the age of 88, following a stroke and heart failure, according to a death certificate released by Vatican doctor Andrea Arcangeli. Trump was among the world leaders who attended the pope’s funeral.
Following Trump’s post of the AI-generated image, several social media users accused him of mocking the pope’s death.
“This is disrespectful to the church and God himself… he’s literally the antichrist,” one comment read.
Another user wrote, “This is disgusting and entirely offensive.”
A third person tweeted, “This is extremely disrespectful and narcissistic. Republicans really voted for that.”
One more commenter expressed, “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 pick a new pope?”
Trump had recently been asked by a reporter who he would like to see succeed Pope Francis. The 78-year-old responded with a light-hearted remark: “I’d like to be Pope. That would be my number one choice.”
He also added, “I have no preference. I must say, we have a cardinal from New York who’s very good, so we’ll see what happens.”
