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President Donald Trump said he deleted an AI image depicting himself as Jesus Christ from his Truth Social account because of the "confusion" the post caused.
“Normally I don’t like doing that, but I didn’t want to have anybody be confused,” Trump told CBS News when asked why he took the post down on Monday (April 13).
“People were confused,” he added.
Trump shared the post following his criticism of Pope Leo XIV, which he doubled down on Monday (April 13), claiming the pope "said things that are wrong" in regards to his stance against the United States and Israel's war with Iran. The president had said that he thought the photo "was me as a doctor and it had to do with the Red Cross" earlier in the day while addressing the incident, which he later claimed "most people thought" as well.
“You had the Red Cross right there, you had, you know, medical people surrounding me, and I was like the doctor, you know, as a little fun playing the doctor and making people better,” Trump told CBS News. “So that’s what it was viewed as.”
The president also responded to criticism from staunch conservative pundit Riley Gaines' post in which she questioned why he would share a post mocking Jesus Christ.
“I didn’t listen to Riley Gaines. I’m not a big fan of Riley, actually,” Trump said.
Pope Leo responded to the earlier personal attack by Trump during a flight to Algeria on the papal plane Monday.
“I have no fear of the Trump administration or speaking out loudly of the message of the Gospel, which is what I believe I am here to do, what the Church is here to do. We are not politicians. We don’t deal with foreign policy with the same perspective he might understand it, but I do believe in the message of the Gospel, as a peacemaker," Pope Leo told journalists via OSV News Vatican editor Courtney Mares.
Leo condemned the war in Iran in his latest comments against all global wars, which had been addressed in both his Palm Sunday and Easter Mass services.
“Enough with the idolatry of self and money! Enough with the display of force! Enough with war! True strength is manifested in serving life,” Leo said on Saturday (April 11) via CBS News.
Leo also said it was "truly unacceptable" for Trump to have recently made his threat to destroy "an entire civilization" in Iran.