Trump draws criticism with AI image of himself as the pope ahead of the papal conclave

NEW YORK AP President Donald Trump posted an artificial intelligence-generated image of himself dressed as pope as the mourning of Pope Francis continues and just days before the conclave to elect his successor is set to begin Trump s action drew rebukes from a group representing Catholic bishops in New York and among Italians The image shared Friday night on Trump s Truth Social site and later reposted by the White House on its official X account raised eyebrows on social media and at the Vatican which is still in the period of nine days of official mourning following Francis death on April Catholic cardinals have been celebrating daily Masses in his memory and are due to open the conclave to elect his successor on Wednesday The death of a pope and electoral process of another is a matter of utmost solemnity for Catholics for whom the pope is Christ s vicar on Earth That is all the more true in Italy where the papacy is held in high esteem even by nonreligious Italians 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 noted it was offensive given that the period of official mourning is still underway Left-leaning former Premier Matteo Renzi declared the image was 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 market risks recession and the dollar loses value The sovereignists are doing damage everywhere The 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 authorities 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 straightaway respond to questions about the backlash to the image or why the president had shared the image But Jack Posobiec a prominent far-right influencer and Trump ally who not long ago 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 comes after Trump joked 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 reported 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 various upsides Watching for white smoke Trump MMXXVIII Vice President JD Vance who is Catholic and was one of the last foreign representatives 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 shield adviser and acting archivist Beyond floating himself for the job Trump also has 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 a place called New York who s very good So we ll see what happens he commented Dolan is one of U S cardinals who will be voting in the conclave but Trump s pitch might have cost Dolan advocacy 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 of being promoted excessively 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 immigrants 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 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 civilization 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 analysis flatly and officially denied by the Vatican that Cardinal Pietro Parolin had had a fitness scare this past week that required healthcare 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 strategy and its controversial deal with Beijing over bishop nominations a deal that the was sharply criticized by the first Trump administration Winfield revealed from Vatican City Source