'Grow up': Catholics revolt after Trump insists they 'loved' image of him as pope

Not long after Pope Francis' death, President Donald Trump posted an AI-generated image of himself in papal garb on both his Truth Social account and on the White House's official X account. Catholics have been speaking out against the image despite Trump's assertions that it wasn't offensive.

Newsweek reported Monday that Trump waved off concerns about the image, which has yet to be taken down on either account. The president insisted that he was simply attempting to be humorous.

"You mean they can't take a joke?" Trump said in response to a question about Catholics being upset about the image. "You don't mean the Catholics, you mean the fake news media. The Catholics loved it. I had nothing to do with it. Maybe it was AI."

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However, many prominent Catholics — including conservative ones – have been outspoken in their disdain for the image. Bishop Robert Barron (described as a "neoconservative" by conservative media) said Trump's post was a "bad joke" and "sophomoric," and added: "I wish he hadn't done it." Cardinal Timothy Dolan, who is known for his conservative views on abortion and same-sex marriage, also blasted Trump over the image.

"It wasn't good," Dolan told reporters over the weekend, adding that Trump was a "brutta figura" which translates to "making a fool of oneself."

Former Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele — a never-Trump conservative who trained to be a Catholic priest before entering politics — was also outspoken in his condemnation of the president over the image. He noted that the Catholic Church is still in the period of Novemdiales, which is the time after the death of a pope, and that Trump's "narcissism" was the primary motivator for the image.

"More to the point, this affirms how unserious and incapable he is," Steele tweeted. "At 78 he remains a 10 [year-old] child, emotionally scarred and broken while desperate to prove he could be somebody. His problem: he can’t grow up to prove it."

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