‘Clown’ Donald Trump slammed for AI-generated pope submit | EUROtoday

President Donald Trump has been known as ‘a clown’ for posting a picture of himself because the pope.

The AI-generated image generated anger forward of this week’s gathering of cardinals to decide on a brand new chief of the 1.4-billion-strong Catholic Church.

It nearly comes simply days after he joked he would “like to be pope”.

Trump, who just isn’t a Catholic and doesn’t attend church frequently, posted the picture on his Truth Social platform late on Friday, lower than every week after attending the funeral of Pope Francis, who died at 88 final month. The White House then reposted it on its official X account.

The picture reveals an unsmiling Trump seated in an ornate chair, wearing white papal vestments and headdress, with proper forefinger raised.

The irreverent posting drew immediate outrage on X, together with from Republicans in opposition to Trump, a gaggle that describes itself as “pro-democracy conservative Republicans fighting Trump & Trumpism.” The group reposted the picture, calling it “a blatant insult to Catholics and a mockery of their faith”.

Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni declined to touch upon the picture throughout a briefing with journalists in regards to the technique of electing a brand new pope, which begins on May 7.

Former Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi wrote on X: “This is a picture that offends believers, insults establishments and reveals that the chief of the worldwide proper enjoys being a clown. In the meantime, the American financial system dangers recession and the greenback loses worth.”

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Closer to home, the Catholic bishops of New York state also expressed their displeasure on X.

“There is nothing intelligent or humorous about this picture, Mr. President,” they wrote. “We simply buried our beloved Pope Francis and the cardinals are about to enter a solemn conclave to elect a brand new successor of St. Peter. Do not mock us.”

Trump on Tuesday had jokingly said he would be his own first choice to become pope, before adding that there was a “excellent” candidate in New York, Cardinal Timothy Dolan.

Dolan, the archbishop of New York, is not on the short list of possible contenders for the top spot, but it does include another American, Cardinal Joseph Tobin, archbishop of Newark, New Jersey. There has never been a pope from the United States.

In mid-February, both Trump and the official White House social media accounts posted a different AI-generated image of the president wearing a crown and captioned “CONGESTION PRICING IS DEAD. Manhattan, and all of New York, is SAVED. LONG LIVE THE KING!”

In West Palm Beach, Debbie Macchia, 60, stood waiting with a dozen other supporters as Trump’s motorcade arrived at his golf club on Saturday morning.

“He was clearly joking. Clearly joking,” said Macchia, who is Jewish. “But I would not wish to see them do something sacrilegious with the pope, or something.”