With the embers of the scandal over the publication and subsequent deletion of an image of himself in the manner of Jesus Christ still hot, the President of the United States, Donald Trump, once again played the game of blasphemous provocation this Wednesday. It was on his social network, Truth, where he reproduced the message of a user from X with a drawing of Jesus hugging the president, who wears a transcendental expression. It came from an account called Irish for Trump, apparently owned by a Republican candidate from Massachusetts who did not make it past the primaries in 2024, and Trump accompanied it with the following message: “Maybe the Radical Left Nuts won’t like it, but I think [the meme] is pretty nice!!!”.
The truth is that since he attacked Pope Leo XIV last Sunday for his criticisms of the war of the United States and Israel against Iran and then spread an artificial intelligence creation in which he healed a sick person dressed in a white robe, touched by an aura and surrounded by angels and fighter jets, the displeasure has gone far beyond that “Radical Left” he enjoys blaming.
Criticism has come these days to Trump ― who, unusually for him, deleted the post the next day and said he had published it because it showed him as a “doctor” and not as the son of God ― from his own camp. And that includes prominent Republican politicians, who are not usually prone to confront him, important faith leaders, and part of the base of his Christian followers, especially Catholics.
Several bishops, from Oklahoma to Chicago or Las Vegas, spoke publicly against the attacks of the President of the United States. Archbishop Paul Coakley, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, recalled in a statement that the “Pope is not a rival [to Trump], but the vicar of Christ, who speaks from the truth of the Gospel and cares for the souls.”
“I’m not saying Trump is the Antichrist, but there is no doubt that he is radiating the spirit of the Antichrist,” said Rod Dreher, conservative commentator and Orthodox Christian, to The Wall Street Journal. The comment referred to rhetoric that has gained unusual strength in the United States thanks to the obsession with Satan’s envoy of Peter Thiel, founder of PayPal or Palantir and mentor of the vice president, J. D. Vance, to whose conversion to Catholicism he contributed. Meanwhile, former college swimmer and anti-trans activist Riley Gaines warned on social media that “God must not be mocked.”
With his conservative agenda and his relentless war against the progressive woke agenda, as well as against abortion rights or the achievements of the trans community, Trump has won the favor of both electorates in the last three elections. In 2024, he was supported by 62% of Protestants and 55% of Catholics, according to the Pew Center.
The first American Pope
That was months before the election of Leo XIV. Born in Chicago, he is the first American Pope in history, and he is more popular among conservative Catholics in this country than his predecessor, Francis, whose pontificate was marked by clashes with an American Church in crisis due to scandals of pedophilia within it. Trump also lashed out at Jorge Mario Bergoglio during his first presidency, but none of those attacks can compare to the one launched last weekend by the President of the United States against his compatriot Leo XIV.
He said he is not “a big fan” of the Pontiff, whom he criticized for being “soft on crime” and for playing into the left. Leo XVI, on a papal trip to Africa, responded forcefully on Monday: “I am not afraid of the Trump Administration,” he declared. On Tuesday night, the Republican struck again on Truth with this message: “Can someone please tell Pope Leo that Iran has killed at least 42,000 innocent, completely unarmed protesters in the last two months, and that it is absolutely unacceptable for Iran to have a Nuclear Bomb?”.
Read more Mexico and the US advance in the critical minerals agreement on the eve of the USMCA review
Shortly before the publication of that new message, Vance, the most politically powerful Catholic in the country, participated in a Turning Point USA event, the MAGA proselytizing organization (acronym of the Trumpist slogan Make America Great Again), founded on fervent Christian values by Charlie Kirk, who was killed last September. Vance was speaking about the Pope, whom he advised to “be careful when talking about theological matters,” when an attendee in the audience interrupted him twice shouting. That argument, that the supreme pontiff would do better not to meddle in others’ affairs or do politics, has been repeated these days by several Republican politicians, led by the Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, a fervent evangelical.
It is not the first time the vice president has confronted Robert Prevost, the baptismal name of the Pope, who appears in public records as a Republican voter. Vance, who was one of the last people to see Francis alive, whom he visited in the Vatican, stated last year on X that the Catholic faith is compatible with the deportation of immigrants. Leo XIV responded by bouncing an article that contradicted that theory with the warning that his interpretation of love in Christianity, specifically the concept of ordo amoris, was “wrong.”
A few months after that, Trump, whose limited knowledge of faith matters has been proven again with this scandal, resorted to artificial intelligence to portray himself as the Pope. And anyone familiar with the wildly inventive and often crude and blasphemous world of MAGA merchandising ― one of whose most repeated slogans says “Jesus is my savior, and Trump, my president” ― will know that imagery representing the Republican leader as a martyr or as a divine figure is common.
Trump, who in his second term has created an Office for Faith despite his unpious past, is Protestant, like most of his predecessors. It is the norm in the United States, except for a few cases, such as Joe Biden, who was the first Catholic president since John F. Kennedy.
A third of the current cabinet members are Catholic, as well as 27% of the House of Representatives and six of the nine Supreme Court justices (who are also the six conservatives on the bench). These three percentages are far from faithfully reflecting the overall slice of beliefs in a country: Americans who identify as Catholic represent 20% of the population.
It would be bold to say, despite the criticism received these days, that the scandal will cost Trump in the long term among them. His history is full of episodes capable of ending the political career of any other politician, which did not affect his. This one is, however, going through the worst moments of popular approval of his second presidency.
Read more Gustavo Petro chooses Daniel Quintero as Superintendent of Health
