Trump faces backlash from religious right after posting AI image of himself as ‘Jesus’

In a move that has sent shockwaves through his most loyal constituencies, President Donald Trump finds himself at the center of a burgeoning firestorm, facing a rare and intensifying wave of condemnation from the very conservative and religious circles that have long anchored his political movement. The backlash follows the circulation of a provocative, AI-generated image depicting Trump in a decidedly messianic role—a visual gambit that many of his faithful supporters are now decrying as outright blasphemy and “sacrilegious” overreach.

The controversy was ignited in the small hours of the morning when Trump launched a scathing late-night volley on Truth Social against Pope Leo XIV. In a characteristically blunt digital broadside, the former president labeled the pontiff “WEAK” on criminal justice and “terrible” on matters of foreign policy. However, it was the accompanying visual that transformed a standard political spat into a theological crisis.