President Donald Trump sparked controversy by posting an AI-generated image of himself dressed as the pope, amid the ongoing mourning for Pope Francis and just days before the conclave to elect his successor.
The image, shared on Trump's Truth Social site Friday night and later reposted by the White House on X, drew sharp criticism from a Catholic bishops' group in New York and Italians alike.
The post drew attention on social media and raised eyebrows at the Vatican, which is still observing nine days of official mourning following Francis' death on April 21. Catholic cardinals have been holding daily Masses in his memory and are set to begin the conclave to elect a new pope on Wednesday.
The death of a pope and the election of his successor is a deeply solemn event for Catholics, for whom the pope is considered Christ’s vicar on Earth. This significance is particularly felt in Italy, where the papacy is revered even by many who are not religious.
The image, featuring Trump in a white cassock and pointed miter, or bishop’s hat, was the topic of several questions during the Vatican’s daily conclave briefing Saturday. Italian and Spanish news reports lamented its poor taste and said it was offensive, given that the period of official mourning was still underway.
Left-leaning former Premier Matteo Renzi called the image shameful. "This is an image that offends believers, insults institutions and shows that the leader of the right-wing world enjoys clowning around,” Renzi wrote on X. "Meanwhile, the U.S. economy risks recession, and the dollar loses value. The sovereignists are doing damage everywhere.”
Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni declined to comment.
In the United States, the New York State Catholic Conference, which represents the bishops of the state in working with government, accused Trump of mockery.
"There is nothing clever or funny about this image, Mr. President,” they wrote. "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. Do not mock us.”
Italy’s left-leaning La Repubblica also featured the image on its homepage Saturday with a commentary accusing Trump of "pathological megalomania.”
The White House did not immediately respond to questions about the backlash to the image or why the president shared it.
But Jack Posobiec, a prominent far-right influencer and Trump ally who recently participated in a Catholic prayer event in March at Trump’s Florida resort, defended the president.
"I’m Catholic. We’ve all been making jokes about the upcoming pope selection all week. It’s called a sense of humor," he wrote on X.
The episode follows Trump’s comments last week about his interest in the vacancy. "I’d like to be pope. That would be my number one choice," the thrice-married president, who is not Catholic, told reporters.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, a close Trump ally, piled on.
"I was excited to hear that President Trump is open to the idea of being the next pope. This would truly be a dark-horse candidate, but I would ask the papal conclave and Catholic faithful to keep an open mind about this possibility!” Graham, R-S.C., wrote on X. "The first pope-U.S. president combination has many upsides. Watching for white smoke... Trump MMXXVIII!”
Vice President JD Vance, who is Catholic and was one of the last foreign officials to meet with Francis before the pope died, also joked about Secretary of State Marco Rubio becoming pope, suggesting Rubio could add it to the long list of titles he holds, including national security adviser and acting archivist.
Beyond floating himself for the job, Trump has also put in a plug for Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the archbishop of New York.
"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,” he said.
Dolan, 75, is one of 10 U.S. cardinals who will be voting in the conclave, but Trump’s pitch might have cost Dolan support.
The reason conclaves are held in secrecy, with cardinals sequestered for the duration, is to prevent outside secular powers from influencing their choice, as occurred in centuries past.
There is an old saying about campaigning for the job of pope or being excessively promoted, especially by outsiders: If you "enter a conclave as pope, you leave as a cardinal.”
While Trump attended Francis’ funeral, he and Vance have clashed with U.S. bishops in general and Francis in particular over the administration’s hard-line stance on immigration and its efforts to deport migrants en masse. Right before he was hospitalized in February for pneumonia, Francis issued a strong rebuke of the administration's mass deportation plans and Vance's theological justification of it.
Over 12 years as pope, Francis tried to remake the U.S. Catholic hierarchy more in his image, elevating pastors who prioritized social justice and migration issues over culture warriors who were more favored by his more doctrinaire predecessors, St. John Paul II and Benedict XVI. A new pope who is more conservative could reverse that effort.
Trump has nominated as his ambassador to the Holy See Brian Burch, whose Catholicvote.org has been aggressively covering the pre-conclave days at the Vatican. It was one of the main disseminators in English-speaking media of a report, flatly and officially denied by the Vatican, that Cardinal Pietro Parolin had had a health scare this past week that required medical attention.
Parolin was the secretary of state under Francis and is seen as a leading contender to be pope. He is also the main architect of the Vatican’s China policy and its controversial 2018 deal with Beijing over bishop nominations – a deal that was sharply criticized by the first Trump administration.
