On Friday, Donald Trump shared an image on his social media platform, likely created by artificial intelligence, depicting him in papal attire, following his comment about wanting to be pope just days before the Vatican conclave to elect a successor to Francis.
The image on Truth Social shows the former US President sitting solemnly in a chair, wearing the pope’s white cassock and mitre, with a large gold cross around his neck, his left hand on his thigh, and his right index finger pointing skyward.
According to American media outlets that reshared the image on their social accounts, the photo appears to be AI-generated and was posted without any accompanying commentary from the Republican billionaire.
Trump as the pope, originally on his Truth Social account and reposted by the White House on the X
Since returning to the White House on 20 January, Donald Trump has dominated the American and global media landscape with announcements and commentary on a wide range of issues. Earlier this week, he joked about the election of the next leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics, a minority religion in the United States.
“I’d like to be pope. That would be my number one choice,” Trump remarked when questioned by journalists about his preferences for the succession following the death of Pope Francis on Easter Monday at the age of 88.
The day before his death, Pope Francis briefly met with US Vice President JD Vance, a converted Catholic and staunch conservative, on Easter Sunday, two months after the late pontiff sharply criticised the Trump administration’s immigration policies.
Francis had warned of a “major crisis” that “begins badly and will end badly.”
Approximately 20% of Americans identify as Catholic, and exit polls in November indicated that around 60% of this demographic voted in favour of Donald Trump.
