“You are not Jesus.” What does Donald Trump risk in front of the US voters after the dispute with Pope Leon
President Donald Trump's posting of an AI-generated image of him as Jesus coincided with polls showing Catholic voters are unhappy with him. Trump said Monday that he posted the image online because he thought it depicted him as a doctor healing people.
Even on Truth Social's own site, where its posts are usually praised by fervent supporters, there were clear signs of dissent, including angry comments from some users, The Times writes.
“Mr. President, with all due respect. DELETE THIS. You are not Jesus”one user replied, describing himself as straight “Bible-believing, God-fearing, Jesus-follower, country-loving, American-patriotic, ultra-MAGA man.”
Trump, in the image of Jesus PHOTO: X
The author added: “If he is a staff member, fire him and apologize to the Christians for this mockery.”
Gavin Newsom, the Democratic governor of California, who is Catholic, responded with his own edited version of the image, featuring Trump as the Grim Reaper and Jeffrey Epstein in the background. Trump did not apologize or retract, but deleted the post. He also maintained his criticism of US-born Pope Leon, a former Chicago cardinal, calling “WEAK on crime” and “terrible for foreign policy”.
There are broader signs that a growing number of Catholics have doubts about Trump. Recent local and state election results show that support for the president among Catholic voters is declining, especially among Hispanic Americans who have leaned toward him in 2024.
Doubts about Trump
Trump won Catholics by a margin of 12 percentage points in the election. Now, 48% approve of the job he is doing as president, and 52% disapprove, a 16 percentage point gap against him. About 40 percent approve of his handling of the Iran war, and 60 percent disapprove, according to a joint survey by Republican polling firm Shaw & Co Research and Democratic polling firm Beacon Research. The impression of Catholics' unease with Trump was accentuated by the image of the country's three most important cardinals vehemently supporting the pope's anti-war stance on the show “60 Minutes” from CBS, Sunday evening.
“In Catholic teaching, this is not a just war,” said Cardinal Robert McElroy of Washington DC.
Pope Leon PHOTO: X
Vatican response after Trump calls Pope Leo 'weak' and 'disastrous in foreign policy'
“The Catholic faith teaches us that there are certain prerequisites for a just war. You can't aim at a variety of different goals. You have to have one precise goal, which is to restore justice and peace. That's all.”
Cardinal Joseph Tobin of Newark defended the Pope, saying: “He is the pastor of the world. He is not an expert. So the distinction is that it will not rule on everything. But it will decide what is important.”
In the election, Trump won 55% of the Catholic vote, compared to 43% for Kamala Harris. In 2020, Trump got 50% of the Catholic vote, while Joe Biden got 49%. “Catholics are undecided voters,” said John White, professor emeritus of political science at The Catholic University of America.
A quarter of American voters, Catholic
About a quarter of American voters come from Catholic backgrounds. “They voted for Biden in 2020, they voted for Trump in 2024, and right now I'd argue they're undecided,” White said. “They are not immune to the economic impact of the Iran war and the tariffs and so on.”
White contrasted the outcry over Trump's Jesus meme with the low-key reaction to his post about artificial intelligence last May, shortly before Leo was named pope, in which the president was dressed in papal robes and miter.
Trump dressed as the pope PHOTO: X
“The reaction from Trump's own electoral base to this situation was not what we see today – what a difference a year makes,” he said, suggesting that this was a sign that even among Trump supporters, the mood was turning against him.
Impact on mid-term elections
White pointed to an accumulation of factors that might help explain the change. Hispanic voters are particularly angered by his attempt to end birthright citizenship and his push for mass deportations, with some migrants being held up in court trying to regularize their status. There could be an impact on November's midterm elections, when the House of Representatives will be up for re-election along with a third of the Senate.
Trump deleted the AI-generated photo of himself as Jesus after a wave of criticism from Christian supporters. Reactions included: “blasphemy”
“You can look for places like Arizona, Nevada, California and Texas with high Hispanic populations, particularly along the Texas-Mexico border, where Trump has made significant gains, but those seem to be eroding pretty quickly,” White said.
“But it's also interesting to me — and we're not really getting the polls here — I'd like to see where white Catholics stand, because they've been the group that's gotten significantly closer to the Republicans over the decades, from the height of Democratic President John F. Kennedy and Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson, to their courting by Republican President Richard Nixon and then Republican President Reagan. There was the strongest base of support for Trump among Catholics.“
In addition to those of Irish and Italian descent concentrated in the American Northeast, there are also Catholics of Polish and Ukrainian descent to watch, he pointed out.
““Some … argue that there is no Catholic vote because that's the first thing people think of when they walk into a voting booth, as opposed to their partisan identification?”White added. “But I think it has come to a point where Catholics can no longer ignore what is being said.”
