Trump, White House post AI photo depicting him as pope

President Trump and the White House posted an AI-generated photo that showed him as pope after he joked that he’d like the job. 

Mr. Trump first posted the image on his social media platform, Truth Social, and the White House’s official X account followed suit. 

The image, which depicts the president sitting on a golden chair wearing traditional papal clothing and a cross, comes as cardinals are set to hold a conclave at the Vatican on May 7 to elect the next pontiff following the death of Pope Francis last month. 

Mr. Trump and numerous other world leaders attended Francis’ funeral in Rome last week. 

When the president returned, he joked that he may want to throw his name in the running for the next bishop of Rome. 

“I’d like to be pope, that would be my number one choice,” he told reporters. “No, I don’t know, I have no preference. I must say we have a cardinal that happens to be out of a place called New York who’s very good, so we’ll see what happens.” 

The post received some positive feedback on social media, with users chalking it up as a joke. Others were not as entertained. 

“There is nothing clever or funny about this image, Mr. President,” the New York State Catholic Conference, which lobbies on behalf of bishops in the Empire State, posted on X. 

“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,” the organization continued. “Do not mock us.”

Former Republican National Committee Chair Michael Steele, now a prominent Trump critic, also decried the image for being posted during the nine-day mourning period established by the Catholic Church, known as Novemdiales, following the death of a pope. 

“I’ll set this offense aside because Trump in his narcissism gets off on our being offended,” he said on X. “More to the point, this affirms how unserious and incapable he is. At 78 he remains a 10yo child, emotionally scarred and broken while desperate to prove he could be somebody. His problem: he can’t grow up to prove it.”