Trump, Pope Leo and Jesus: Why Vatican attacks and bizarre image posted online risk costing president election

Pew polls cited by the US website Axios show that Trump's approval rating among white Catholics fell from 59% in February 2025 to 52% in January 2026. Among Hispanic Catholics, it fell from 31% to 23%.

President Donald Trump's attacks on Pope Leo XIV and the release of an AI-generated image of what appears to be Jesus risk alienating Catholic voters who strongly backed him in 2024.

The midterm elections are in November, and polls suggest Republicans could lose ground in Congress.

This electoral segment is important. Catholics are the largest religious group of undecided voters in America, and Trump's support was already in decline before his latest attacks on the pope.

This despite the fact that the president won the Catholic vote by a margin of 10-20 points in 2024, according to exit polls, a dramatic change from 2020.

His latest positions risk leaving him without some of that support.

Against the Pope

Trump began by posting a message of abuse on the morning of the Catholic Easter to Iran: “Open the damn strait you crazy bastards or live in Hell! Glory to Allah!” he wrote.

Meanwhile, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth urged Americans to pray for “overwhelming violence” against enemies, even as Pope Leo used the Easter Mass to call on “those who have guns” to “lay them down.”

Trump then threatened that “an entire civilization will die tonight” in Iran. Pope Leo criticized the threat, saying it was “truly unacceptable”.

On Sunday, Trump directly attacked the pope, saying he was “weak on crime” and “terrible on foreign policy.”

Trump also criticized the conclave itself, claiming that Leon was only elected because the Church “thought that would be the best way to handle” the US president.

In remarks made aboard the papal plane en route to Algeria, where the first American pope begins a 10-day visit to four African countries, the Supreme Pontiff responded that the Christian message was being “abused.”

“I don't want to get into a debate with him,” Pope Leo told Reuters as he greeted journalists on the plane.

“I don't think that the message of the Gospel is meant to be abused in the way that some people do,” the head of the Catholic Church said.

Outside the Oval Office on Monday, Trump stepped up his criticism of Leon: “I have nothing to apologize for. He's wrong.”

Trump: Jesus or doctor?

Minutes later, Trump posted an AI-generated image of himself dressed in biblical garb, healing the sick — the image the public perceived to be that of Jesus.

Amid intense backlash, the president later deleted the image, saying he thought it actually depicted him “as a doctor.”

The president said only those spreading “fake news” could claim the post suggested he was comparing himself to Jesus Christ.

“I thought I was appearing as a doctor and it had something to do with the Red Cross,” said the US president, quoted by CNN.

By the time he deleted the post, Trump had been criticized by some of his most prominent Christian supporters, accusing him of committing blasphemy.

No prominent Catholic voice has publicly defended Trump's attacks

“I can't think of any parallel, at least from Christian-majority Western countries, to such direct and public attacks on the Pope,” Andrew Chesnut, chair of the Catholic studies department at Virginia Commonwealth University, told the Axios website.

Chesnut said he sees discontent among white Catholics, not just Latinos, as many see Trump's attack as “an attack on their religion.”

Conclave commentary can be particularly risky, Chesnut said. Many Catholics believe that the Holy Spirit guides the cardinals in choosing a pope. Trump's claim that Leon was chosen for political reasons calls into question a process that devout Catholics hold sacred.

That Leon is the first American pontiff deepens the sense of personal involvement. “He's one of us. He's an American Catholic from Chi-Town,” Chesnut said, referring to Chicago.

He asserted that no prominent Catholic voice has publicly defended Trump's attacks on the pope: “All the major cardinals and bishops who have made statements support the pope and criticize Trump.”

Even a key Trump ally in Europe has come to the pope's defense.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni condemned the statements made by the US president, saying that the appeals for peace that the Sovereign Pontiff is making are “correct”.

Catholics, 1 in 5 voters nationwide

Catholics represent approximately 1 in 5 voters nationally, according to exit polls.

In 2020, the Catholic vote split, with them voting for either Trump by just one percentage point or Biden by five percentage points, according to separate exit polls by the AP and the Washington Post.

In 2024, however, Trump decisively won this segment of the electorate by a margin of 10 to 20 percentage points, according to polls.

Although many religious groups may experience marginal changes, most remain in their partisan camps cycle after cycle.

Catholics are the exception. They swing, sometimes dramatically, and represent a large enough share of the electorate to decide close electoral races.

Pew polls show that Trump's approval among white Catholics fell from 59% in February 2025 to 52% in January 2026. Among Hispanic Catholics, it fell from 31% to 23%.