‘I thought it was me as a doctor:’ Trump downplays controversial post depicting himself as Jesus Christ

WASHINGTON (CN) — Facing intense backlash from his own supporters over a social media post depicting himself as Jesus Christ, President Donald Trump told reporters Monday he thought the highly controversial image merely showed him “as a doctor.”

Trump’s attempt to downplay his apparent self-comparison to the central figure of Christianity came just hours after he targeted Pope Leo XIV in a separate social media tirade in which he slammed the leader of the Catholic church as “soft on crime” and claimed the supreme pontiff should not criticize the American president.

The president angered Democrats and Republicans alike on Sunday — the same day as Orthodox Easter — with an image posted to social media platform Truth Social which depicted Trump in Christlike red and white robes, healing a bedridden man with his bare hands. Adding to the messianic imagery was what appeared to be a group of angelic U.S. military soldiers emerging from the clouds above the president’s head.

The picture, which appeared to be AI-generated, spurred widespread consternation. Users on Truth Social, a social media platform owned by the president and largely populated with his own supporters, urged Trump in the post’s replies to delete the image.

Elsewhere online, other conservative political figures and religious leaders panned Trump’s post.

“Seriously, I cannot understand why he’d post this,” wrote Riley Gaines, the former collegiate swimmer turned conservative commentator and anti-transgender rights activist. “Is he looking for a response? Does he actually think this?”

Former Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, a onetime Trump ally, compared the president’s Christ-invoking post to comments he made last week about the Iran war in which he threatened to end “a whole civilization” if Tehran refused to meet U.S. demands in the conflict. “I completely denounce this and I’m praying against it,” she added.

But, speaking to reporters outside the Oval Office on Monday, Trump insisted the image he posted had nothing to do with Jesus Christ despite the symbols it depicted.

“I did post it, and I thought it was me as a doctor … as a Red Cross worker, which we support,” the president said.

Trump expressed confusion about how his post had been interpreted. “Only the fake news could come up with that one,” he said. “I had just heard about it, and I said, ‘how did they come up with that?’ It’s supposed to be me as a doctor, making people better — and I do make people better.”

A White House spokesperson did not immediately return a request for comment about why the president had deleted the post despite his claim that it was harmless.

Controversy around Trump and comparisons to Jesus Christ come as the president over the weekend took aim at Pope Leo, the first American head of the Catholic church who has recently been critical of U.S. military action in Iran and Venezuela.

In a lengthy post to Truth Social on Sunday night, Trump slammed the pope as “WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy.”

The president took credit for Leo’s selection as the supreme pontiff last year, claiming the Catholic church chose him because he is American and because the cardinals hoped to curry favor with the Trump administration. “If I wasn’t in the White House, Leo wouldn’t be in the Vatican,” Trump wrote. “Leo should get his act together as Pope, use Common Sense, stop catering to the Radical Left and focus on being a Great Pope, not a Politician.”

Trump added that he didn’t want a pope who “criticizes the President of the United States.”

And speaking to reporters Monday, Trump refused to apologize for his comments. “I’m just responding to Pope Leo,” he said. “There’s nothing to apologize for. He’s wrong.”

The supreme pontiff has repeatedly offered veiled criticism of the Trump administration, not just in its approach to war but also its treatment of immigrants. During a homily delivered on Palm Sunday, Leo said Jesus “does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war,” an apparent retort to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s invocation of Christianity in public remarks about the Iran conflict.

Responding to Trump’s social media post on Monday, Leo said he had “no fear” of the administration. “It’s ironic, the name of the site itself,” the pope said of the president’s platform Truth Social. “Say no more.”

Evangelical Christians, particularly white Protestants, were a major factor in Trump’s election victories in both 2016 and 2024. According to a Pew Research poll published in February, white Evangelicals were twice as likely than the average U.S. adult to approve of the president’s performance and his policy agenda. As many as 40% of Evangelicals surveyed said they were extremely or very confident that Trump acted “ethically” in office.

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