Donald Trump, accused of “offending believers, insulting institutions”, because of the image in which he appears in the Pope costume
Donald Trump's portrait, dressed in pope clothes. Photo source: Social Truth / Donald Trump
US President Donald Trump has been accused of mocking the choice of a new leader of the Catholic Church, after posting on social networks an image generated by the artificial intelligence in which he appears as a pope, The Guardian reports.
The image was distributed on Friday night on Truth Social, a platform owned by Trump, and on the official X account of the White House, stirring up to the Vatican, which is still in the nine days of the official mourning period after Pope Francis.
In the picture, the US president appears solemnly placed in an armchair, with impassible face, dressed in the pope white, wearing the miter and displaying the imposing gold cross around the neck, with the left hand placed on the thigh and the index finger raised to the sky.
The gesture came in the context in which Cardinals from all over the world gathered in Rome before the conclave, the secret process by which a new leader of the Catholic Church will be chosen, and just a few days after the statement in which Donald Trump joked that he would “like to be a pope.”
“An image that offends believers”
Former Italian prime minister Matteo Renzi said the image is shameful.
“This is an image that offends believers, insulting institutions,” Renzi wrote in a post on X.
In the US, the Catholic conference in New York, which represents the bishops of the state, accused Donald Trump of mockery.
“There is nothing ingenious or funny in this image, Mr. President,” the organization wrote. “We have just buried our beloved Pope Francis, and the cardinals are about to enter a solemn conclave to choose a new successor to Saint Peter. Do not be playing with us,” the statement said.
Publications from Italy and Spain claimed the inadequacy of the message and cataloged it as an offensive, given that the official mourning period is still in progress.
In Republic, an Italian publication that tilts to the left, on Saturday published an image with a comment accusing Trump of “pathological megalomania”.
Asked to respond to critics, the press secretary of the White House, Karoline Leavitt, described President Trump as “a fervent supporter of Catholics and religious freedom.”
Donald Trump, who is not a Catholic and does not go regularly to the church, participated in Pope Francis's funerals on April 26.
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, a close relative of the president, said he was “delighted” to hear that Trump “is open to the idea of being the next pope.”
“It would really be an unexpected candidate, but I would ask the papal conclave and the Catholic believers to open to this possibility,” the Republican wrote in a post on X.
