Baptist News Global has conducted an internet search for any currently elected Republican official who has criticized President Donald Trump’s AI-generated image of him as pope and found none.
It is possible some Republican officials have spoken privately about the controversial image, but using the same AI technology employed to create the image — as well as traditional internet searches — we could find no record of a Republican official criticizing the image, much less condemning it.
One prominent former Republican leader did have a sharp critique. Michael Steele, former Republican National Committee chairman and a devout Catholic, wrote on X that he was going to “set this offense aside because Trump in his narcissism gets off on our being offended. More to the point, this affirms how unserious and incapable he is. At 78 he remains a 10 yo child, emotionally scarred and broken while desperate to prove he could be somebody. His problem: he can’t grow up to prove it.”
Anthony Scaramucci, briefly White House communications director during Trump’s first term, who also is Catholic, also critiqued the image on X: “You are trolling and trying to trigger all of us. Especially us Catholics. But the arrogance and general stupidity and the disgrace that you represent will blow back on all of you.”
Cardinal Timothy Dolan, who is archbishop of New York and Trump’s preferred pick for pope — after himself, of course — offered the most gentle of responses when asked his views by reporters: “I hope he didn’t have anything to do with that. It wasn’t good.”
The cardinal’s response was far nicer than the official response of the New York State Catholic Conference, which posted on X: “There is nothing clever or funny about this image, Mr. President. 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.”
Dennis Poust, executive director of the New York Conference, told The New York Times the image was “disrespectful” and said, “It’s never appropriate to ridicule or mock the papacy.”
“It’s never appropriate to ridicule or mock the papacy.”
When told by a reporter that “some Catholics are not so happy about the image of you looking like the pope,” Trump responded: “Oh, I see. You mean they can’t take a joke. You don’t mean the Catholics, you mean the fake news media. The Catholics loved it. I had nothing to do with it. Somebody made up a picture of me dressed up as the pope. I have no idea where it came from. Maybe it was AI. But I know nothing about it. I just saw it last evening. Actually, my wife thought it was cute.”
The image was, in fact, published on official White House social media and then reposted by Trump himself.
Vice President JD Vance, a devout and conservative Catholic, also made light of the episode others considered blasphemous.
Conservative commentator Bill Kristol poked Vance on X: “Hey, @JDVance, you fine with this disrespect and mocking of the Holy Father?”
Vance replied: “As a general rule, I’m fine with people telling jokes and not fine with people starting stupid wars that kill thousands of my countrymen.” That apparently was a reference to the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, of which Kristol was an advocate.
What’s still not known is who actually created the AI image of Trump as pope. Trump’s White House communications office has been aggressive in creating and posting extremely controversial content, so it could be the source. But the White House has not taken credit for the creation.
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