As the world waits to see who will take the seat of Pope Francis, who died on April 21, Donald Trump went to social media to post what appeared to be a bizarre, AI-generated picture of himself as the next pope. The President posted the photo on his Truth Social account without providing any commentary. As the White House shared the photo on its official social media accounts, many more people saw the image and became baffled by what appeared to be a mockery of the Catholic faith.

What are social media users saying about Trump posting a photo of himself as the pope?

Former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele condemned the image and described Trump as a narcissist.

“During this period of Novemdiales (mourning the loss of Pope Francis) I’ll set this offense aside because Trump in his narcissism gets off on our being offended,” Steele wrote on X. “More to the point, this affirms how unserious and incapable he is. At 78 he remains a 10yo child, emotionally scarred and broken while desperate to prove he could be somebody. His problem: he can’t grow up to prove it.”

Film producer Morgan J. Freeman echoed the sentiment of many others, saying Trump has turned America into a “joke.”

What did Donald Trump previously say about becoming the next pope?

Days after the death of Pope Francis, Trump told reporters that he would like to be the next leader of the Catholic church.

“I’d like to be pope. That would be my No. 1 choice,” Trump said, per Variety.

The President also name-dropped Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Archbishop of New York, in the midst of his statement.

“I must say we have a cardinal that happens to be out of a place called New York who is very good,” he said. “So we’ll see what happens.”

In a 2020 interview with Religion News Service, which was published on the White House website, Trump said he “was confirmed at a Presbyterian church as a child,” but he now consider himself “to be a non-denominational Christian.”

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