Why was the AI image of Trump as Jesus the last straw?

The AI image President Donald Trump posted of himself as Jesus is a sobering reminder not of how much Trump is obsessed with himself, but of how white evangelicals serve a higher power than Trump, and what that higher power may be like.

We already knew Trump viewed himself as a god. So of course he would post that. Why wouldn’t he?

During White House Holy Week events, Christian leaders like Franklin Graham and Robert Jeffress stood by smiling and clapping while Paula White gushed over Trump, even comparing Trump’s political journey to the death and resurrection of Jesus. Then when the two military personnel whose plane had been shot down over Iran were rescued, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth compared their weekend to Jesus’ death and resurrection.

So again, why wouldn’t Trump post that image of him as Jesus? By comparing himself to Jesus, he would simply be following the example of the Christians he’s surrounded himself with.

Yet, when Trump was asked about the post by reporters, he admitted to posting it while denying it was supposed to be Jesus” “I did post it. And I thought it was me as a doctor. Only the fake news could come up with that one. I just heard about it. And I said, ‘How did they come up with that? It’s supposed to be me as a doctor making people better. And I do make people better. I make people a lot better.”

Maybe Trump is lying as usual. Or perhaps he’s being honest about how clueless he is. In either case, after all the pushback, Trump deleted the image.

But despite the president’s attempt to blame the media for the pushback, it was political conservatives pushing back against him loudly too.

Conservative backlash

“This should be deleted immediately,” worship leader Sean Feucht declared. “There’s no context where this is acceptable.”

Conservative activist Riley Gaines: “Why? Seriously, I cannot understand why he’d post this. Is he looking for a response? Does he actually think this? Either way, two things are true: 1) a little humility would serve him well 2) God shall not be mocked.”

Cam Higby, a conservative commentator who converted to Christianity in 2025 after Charlie Kirk’s assassination: “Blasphemy from the Oval Office is not a funny troll.”

Nebraska Rep. Don Bacon: “Some saying he’s just trolling, and others saying it’s anti-Christian. When you divide your own party, it is self-destructive. To me it was a gaudy and juvenile post.”

Allie Beth Stuckey shared a popular meme of Ben Affleck smoking a cigarette with his eyes closed in response, and then said, “That image is what happens when Paula White is your personal pastor and people around you are continually comparing you to Christ.”

For once, I agree with Allie Beth Stuckey.

Then Doug Wilson chimed in. “I was very grateful to see how many conservative Christians immediately denounced the blasphemous Jesus/Trump image,” he posted on X. “I was also grateful to see how many center/left Christians suddenly agreed that public blasphemy is a thing we should all be concerned about.”

“Wilson believes public blasphemy should be considered a crime, punishable by the government.”

Wilson’s use of the term “public blasphemy” is noteworthy because in his ideal Christian supremacist society in which only a certain type of Protestant would be allowed to hold public office, Wilson believes public blasphemy should be considered a crime, punishable by the government.

While it’s nice that a lot of white evangelicals have finally discovered an issue they are willing to criticize Trump for, Wilson’s words are a reminder there may be more going on here regarding this exchange of artificial images that we should reflect on.

Waking up and reflecting on images

In a piece for her Substack, Karen Swallow Prior observed, “It’s interesting that of all the vile words the president has spoken and of all the actions that have usurped various authorities and transgressed both sacred standards and civil norms, it was an IMAGE that crossed the line for so many.”

“White evangelical Protestants have too often and too inexplicably in recent years used words to rationalize the wickedness of their chosen leader,” Prior went on to say. “Blasphemy comes in word, image and deed. If it is an image that wakes them up, let it be so. May it be so.”

While echoing Prior’s prayer, we would be remiss if we didn’t take this opportunity to reflect on why this image stirred such a response.

After all, they didn’t wake up when Trump openly bragged about sexually assaulting women and walking into girls’ dressing rooms while they were changing, or when he cut financial aid to Christian ministries that feed the hungry and rescue the dying, or when his administration killed multiple U.S. citizens while rounding up their neighbors with a reckless vengeance, or when words of Holy War were used to justify military strikes that ended up dropping bombs on hundreds of girls in school.

As the bodies have literally piled up, the response from most white evangelicals over the past decade has either been silence or support while justifying the violence with some form of accusation that the dead didn’t submit to the higher powers.

“Authoritarian Christian theology will continue long after Trump is gone.”

But no matter how loyal they are to Trump, white evangelicals know a day is coming when Trump no longer will be around. And just as Doug Wilson’s authoritarian view of Christianity preceded Trump, authoritarian Christian theology will continue long after Trump is gone.

That’s why our main critique needs to go beyond Trump. For the sake of our future neighbors, we must have the courage to question the deeper assumptions about power and authority that will outlast Trump.

‘Rededicate the nation to Jesus Christ’

“Some moments only come once in 250 years. This is one of them,” shock jock pastor Mark Driscoll announced in an email on Sunday to his supporters. The subject line of the email read: “President Trump asked Pastor Mark for help.”

According to the email, Trump asked Driscoll to “preach the main session that will be livestreamed to the nation” for next month’s America 250 worship service on the National Mall to “rededicate the nation to Jesus Christ.”

Concerns about theocracy and the separation of church and state aside, what exactly does Driscoll think rededicating the nation to Jesus Christ even means? To get a sense of that, perhaps it would help to remember what Driscoll thinks has gone missing.

In a podcast interview with Sean Feucht leading up to the 2024 election, Driscoll and Feucht began accusing Kamala Harris of being a modern-day Jezebel from 2 Kings 9 who surrounds herself with eunuchs. When Feucht asked Driscoll what’s missing, Driscoll replied, “Balls.”

“Balls,” Feucht echoed.

“Balls,” Driscoll confirmed. “That’s what’s missing. The de-masculination of men.”

But remember, for Driscoll, men are to be like Jesus. And what kind of Jesus does he want?

“I cannot worship the hippie, diaper, halo Christ because I cannot worship a guy I can beat up.”

Driscoll claims God’s first posture toward humanity is, “I hate you, you are my enemy, and I will crush you.” During one sermon, he seethed about the return of Jesus while holding trembling hands to his mouth: “He’ll just breathe. And everyone will be destroyed!”

Then while repeatedly pounding both hands on the pulpit as the worship band played underneath his words, he angrily yelled, “I can’t wait to see Jesus! I can’t wait to see Jesus!”

While posting on message boards under the name William Wallace II, he defined “pussified” as “any man who has lost his rocks and completed the process of remaining biologically male but become female in all other ways.” He said a “male lesbian” is “any man who thinks and acts like a woman because he thinks that makes him a better person.” And to men, he said, “The first thing to know about your penis is … it is not your penis. Ultimately, God created you and it is his penis.”

“To Driscoll, women are penis homes.”

Then Driscoll concluded, “Knowing that his penis would need a home, God created a woman to be your wife and when you marry her and look down you will notice that your wife is shaped differently than you and makes a very nice home.”

That’s right. To Driscoll, women are penis homes.

And what happens to those who don’t submit to this supposedly masculinized vision of Jesus and men?

Before he had to leave Mars Hill Church in Seattle over allegations of abuse, he said, “There is a pile of dead bodies behind the Mars Hill bus, and by God’s grace, it’ll be a mountain by the time we’re done. … You either get on the bus, or you get run over by the bus. Those are the options.”

So when Trump chooses Driscoll to rededicate the U.S. to Jesus, it’s important to ask how Driscoll and Trump define Jesus because the way they define Jesus will have implications for anyone who doesn’t get on their bus.

Honoring Jesus by loving your neighbors

As Prior pointed out, many of the white evangelicals who spoke out against Trump’s AI image haven’t been moved by the harm Trump has caused through his words and actions.

In Driscoll terms, they weren’t moved by the bodies under the bus. What finally moved them was the honor of Jesus.

But what does it mean to honor Jesus? When we read the Gospels, we don’t find a Jesus at the top of a sacralized empire obsessed with masculine power and penis homes. Instead, we discover through the Sermon on the Mount that the empire’s assumptions about the truly blessed are turned upside down, and that rather than hating and crushing our neighbors and enemies, we’re to love them as ourselves.

In his parables, we hear of a king who considers the empire’s “least of these” to be his brothers and sisters, and we’re reminded the way we treat them is the way we treat the king. At the Cross, we discover the complete subversion of the empire’s artificial image of power, kingship and being lifted up, alongside God’s open-handed forgiveness toward us when we don’t know what we’re doing. And in the fruit of the Spirit, we catch a taste of what life and relationships could be like when liberated from the way of empire.

“Driscoll’s pile of dead bodies is becoming Trump’s mountain.”

But the Jesus Trump and Driscoll are rededicating the U.S. to next month is a Jesus at the wheel with his foot on the gas, running over all who won’t get on Trump and Driscoll’s masculine power bus. Driscoll’s pile of dead bodies is becoming Trump’s mountain. And that’s a vision of Jesus that is incompatible with the teaching in the Sermon on the Mount and the parables, the humility of the Cross and the fruit of the Spirit.

If we really want to honor Jesus, perhaps we should consider honoring what he said he cared about — loving God and loving your neighbor as yourself, while knowing the way we love our neighbors is the way we’re loving God.

So in a way, perhaps Trump’s use of an AI image is fitting because Trump and Driscoll’s Jesus is an artificial concoction that offers no real presence of embodied love. And perhaps the blasphemy isn’t so much that Trump was artificially painted into the image of Jesus, but that Jesus is being artificially painted into the image of Trump.

 

Rick Pidcock is a 2004 graduate of Bob Jones University, with a bachelor of arts degree in Bible. He’s a freelance writer based in South Carolina and a former Clemons Fellow with BNG. He completed a master of arts degree in worship from Northern Seminary. He is a stay-at-home father of five children and is the author of a forthcoming book, Weapons of Worship: How the Songs of Evangelicalism Form the Soundtrack of Extremism. Follow his blog at www.rickpidcock.com.

 

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