Trump Meets His Meme Match
We can forgive the raping, graft, election stealing, and warmongering. But this goes too far!
As Steven Taylor noted yesterday, President Trump put out messages on Truth Social attacking the Bishop of Rome, followed by a meme of himself as the Prince of Peace.
Apparently, this was too much for some MAGA loyalists.
NYT (“Trump Posted a Picture of Himself as Jesus. Now He’s Trying to Explain It Away.“):
The image showed President Trump in a white and red robe, commonly used in renderings of Jesus Christ and in Scripture prophesying his return. Bright golden light, which is used to depict divine intervention in religious imagery, radiated from Mr. Trump’s hand as he touched the forehead of a sick man. A woman observed the scene with her hands steepled in prayer.
As he received two bags of a McDonald’s food delivery to the Oval Office on Monday morning, Mr. Trump told reporters that he did not catch all that religious imagery. He said he had thought the image he had posted to his Truth Social account had depicted him not as Jesus — but as a physician.
“I thought it was me as a doctor,” Mr. Trump said of the social media post, which he deleted after an outcry. “Only the fake news could come up with that.”
He added, “I make people better.”
The post’s removal was a rare retreat for Mr. Trump, who had posted the apparently A.I.-generated image shortly after using the same platform to attack the American-born Pope Leo XIV, a vocal critic of the U.S. war in Iran. The appearance of the image had sparked an evening’s worth of backlash from religious leaders and Christian supporters who were hurt and shocked that Mr. Trump had appeared to depict himself as a Jesus-like figure.
Later in the day, in an interview with CBS News, Mr. Trump repeated his explanation that he believed the image, which he said he thought was made by “a very beautiful, talented artist,” had depicted him as a doctor.
“I viewed that as a picture of me being a doctor in fixing — you had the Red Cross right there, you had, you know, medical people surrounding me,” he said. “And I was like the doctor, you know, as a little fun playing the doctor and making people better. So that’s what it was viewed as. That’s what most people thought.”
He said he had taken the image down because “I didn’t want to have anybody be confused. People were confused.”
Mr. Trump did not apologize for either post, just as he did not apologize for threatening to wipe out the Iranian civilization last week. (“I’m fine with it,” he said of the threat on Fox News on Sunday, because it had brought Tehran to the negotiating table.) The post attacking Pope Leo XIV as “weak on crime” remains online, and so do countless posts from legions of critics who believe Mr. Trump’s mental fitness for office should be evaluated.
WaPo (“Trump post appearing to depict him as Jesus removed amid backlash“):
President Donald Trump’s posting of an imagethat appeared to depict him as Jesus drew rare criticism from the religious right, prompting allegations of blasphemy and calls for him to take down the post before it was deleted.
[…]
Unlike the post criticizing Leo, whom Trump later said he didn’t like and is too “liberal,” the image evoking Jesus drew swift criticism from some evangelical Christians and conservative Catholics who have otherwise expressed near constant support for Trump’s decisions.
“I don’t know if the President thought he was being funny or if he is under the influence of some substance or what possible explanation he could have for this OUTRAGEOUS blasphemy,” wrote Megan Basham, a prominent conservative Protestant Christian writer and commentator. “But he needs to take this down immediately and ask for forgiveness from the American people and then from God.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment about Trump’s intent in posting the image. Following the backlash and after appearing on the president’s Truth Social account for more than 12 hours, the image was deleted.
[…]
Trump said “only the fake news” could suggest he was depicting himself as Jesus, ignoring the criticism he received from his own religious supporters.
The president last year posted an image of him as pope that appeared to be AI-generated.
One administration official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to criticize the president’s post, predicted that conservative Christian outrage would dissipate in a matter of days as it often has. But the official said it was going too far for Trump to post such an image of himself, even though some of his most loyal MAGA supporters have cast him in quasi-messianic terms.
“Other people at these Trump rallies do it for him, but when you do it yourself, … it’s sacrilegious at best,” the official said.
In the Christian faith, blasphemy — speech or actions showing lack of reverence or outright disrespect to God — is a sin. Trump, who identifies as a Christian but does not claim to regularly pray, read the Bible or attend church, hasenormous support from conservative Christians.
Others like Basham publicly condemned the post. Isabel Brown, a Catholic podcaster with the Daily Wire outlet and a conservative influencer allied with the Trump White House, spoke out against it.
“This post is, frankly, disgusting and unacceptable, but also a profound misreading of the American people experiencing a true and beautiful revival of faith in Christ in the midst of our broken culture,” Brown wrote.
Michael Knowles, another conservative Catholic podcaster aligned with Trump, said online it “behooves the President both spiritually and politically to delete the picture, no matter the intent.”
Riley Gaines, a conservative podcaster, former collegiate swimmer and prominent critic of transgender participation in women’s sports who spoke at Trump rallies and was recently a guest at the White House, also criticized the post. “I cannot understand why he’d post this. Is he looking for a response? Does he actually think this? Either way, two things are true,” Gaines wrote on X, continuing to say that “a little humility would serve him well” and “God shall not be mocked” — a reference to scripture.
The Hill (“Trump-as-Jesus post angers Christian conservatives who say it’s ‘blasphemy’“):
President Trump’s social media post depicting himself as a Jesus-like figure has sparked fierce backlash from factions of his conservative and Christian base, who called the image blasphemous and urged the president to remove it.
[…]
“If you’re a conservative Christian, you don’t like this,” said Doug Heye, a former Republican National Committee communications director, in an interview with The Hill.
“You’ve been fully invested in the Trump presidency for a long time now, but this goes too far for you,” Heye continued. “And we know that he knows that because he deleted it.”
[…]
The post, sent on Orthodox Easter, immediately angered many conservative Christians, who have historically been some of the president’s most loyal followers but who came out in waves to slam the post as blasphemous.
“I don’t know if the President thought he was being funny or if he is under the influence of some substance or what possible explanation he could have for this OUTRAGEOUS blasphemy,” Megan Basham, a prominent conservative Christian journalist, wrote in a post on the social platform X, responding to Trump’s image.
“But he needs to take this down immediately and ask for forgiveness from the American people and then from God,” she continued.
Conservative political commentator Cam Higby said on X, “Blasphemy from the Oval Office is not a funny troll.”
“I support Trump, and I spend 8 hours a day defending him. I will not defend blasphemy. Just correct it and move on. You don’t have to defend it. You don’t have to stop supporting him because you call it out,” he added in a subsequent post. “God > politics.”
Republican Christian influencer Brilyn Hollyhand said he was “pretty frustrated” by Trump’s image and with the president for “comparing yourself, even jokingly, to Jesus,” saying, “It undermines the very value that many of us hold dear” and “hands easy ammunition to critics.”
“Faith is not a prop, and we shouldn’t laugh at it being used as one,” Hollyhand said. “There’s innocent humor, and then there’s this. You don’t need to portray yourself as a savior when your record should speak for itself.”
David Brody, chief political analyst for the Christian Broadcast Network, responded to the image by saying on X, “TAKE THIS DOWN, MR. PRESIDENT.”
“You’ve been credited with doing tons right since that ride down the golden escalator in 2015—defending Judeo-Christian values and taking hits for it. That’s great,” he continued. “But this isn’t just some meme we laugh off and scroll past. It deserves a response.”
“You’re not God. None of us are. This goes too far. It crosses the line. A supporter can back the mission AND reject this simultaneously. Take it down,” he added.
MEDIAite (“‘Gross Blasphemy!’ MAGA Die-Hards Deliver Rare Rebuke of Trump for Posting ‘Unacceptable’ Meme Depicting Himself as Jesus“) rounds up and embeds whole bunch of tweets and other social media posts outraged over the meme.
Ditto Wonkette (“Jesus Trump Deletes Pic Of Himself Healing Sick Because MAGA Is No Fun Anymore“) does as well, including one from Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian:
Which is hilarious in many ways.
Regardless, while I get why Christians would be offended by Trump depicting himself as Doctor Jesus, as someone who spent decades thinking of himself as a conservative Republican, I wouldn’t rank this among the top ten issues with him this week, let alone over the decade-plus since he came down the golden escalator.
MS NOW’s Jarvis DeBerry contends, “The evangelical base decrying Trump’s social media post as blasphemous has only itself to blame.”
Trump’s decision to share the meme finally provoked outraged from prominent members of the white evangelical community that helped put him in power. Because that community has stuck with him through so many potentially career-ending scandals, it has long appeared there was nothing Trump could do to warrant its condemnation. But being asked to think of Trump as God’s anointed is one thing — (albeit a deeply problematic thing.) Being asked to think of Trump as Jesus is something that even some of those who have been singing in the Trump choir can’t abide.
[…]
During his first presidential his campaign, he said he was not sure he had ever asked God for forgiveness. Asked how a Christian could say such a thing, he said, “Why do I have to repent or ask for forgiveness if I am not making mistakes?” And Trump’s white evangelical base has given him every reason to believe that faith is a prop — and that the base approves him using it as such.
Despite his suspect professions of faith and his glaring unfamiliarity with scripture, conservative Christian leaders have praised him. They know of his infidelities. They know of his unrepentant mendacity. They know of his hard-heartedness and arrogance, and they have heard him gleefully boasting that he hates his opponents. And they have still described him as heaven sent.
[…]
It was not two weeks ago that Paula White, a spiritual adviser to Trump, told him he was just like Jesus.
Speaking on the Wednesday of Holy Week as Trump hosted faith leaders, White told Trump, “You were betrayed and arrested and falsely accused — it’s a familiar pattern that our Lord and Savior showed us. But it didn’t end there for him, and it didn’t end there for you. … And sir, because of his resurrection, you rose up. Because he was victorious, you were victorious.”
There were some rumblings of conservative disapproval even then, but Trump clearly didn’t pay attention to them.
Trump, whose approval ratings are about as low as they have ever been, should have immediately rejected the comparison — at least out of fear of political consequences. But he embraced the comparison instead. In doing so, not only did he show us what he thinks of himself, but he also showed his evangelical followers what he thinks of them and their beliefs.
Alas, all the evidence heretofore is that they will eventually forgive and forget. Trump is, after all, both the least Christ-like and most worshiped-by-evangelicals President in my lifetime, if not ever. Cognitive dissonance is a powerful thing, indeed.
Meanwhile, as alluded to in the NYT report above, “Trump’s Erratic Behavior and Extreme Comments Revive Mental Health Debate.” Peter Baker:
President Trump’s erratic behavior and extreme comments in recent days and weeks have turbocharged the crazy-like-a-fox-or-just-plain-crazy debate that has followed him on the national political stage for a decade.
A series of disjointed, hard-to-follow and sometimes-profane statements capped by his “a whole civilization will die tonight” threat to wipe Iran off the map last week and his head-spinning attack on the “WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy” pope on Sunday night have left many with the impression of a deranged autocrat mad with power.
[…]
Democrats who have long challenged Mr. Trump’s psychological fitness have issued a fresh chorus of calls to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove the president from power for disability. But it is not just a concern voiced by partisans on the left, late-night comics or mental health professionals making long-distance diagnoses. It can be heard now among retired generals, diplomats and foreign officials. And most strikingly, it can be heard now on the political right among onetime allies of the president.
Former Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Georgia Republican who recently broke with Mr. Trump, advocated using the 25th Amendment, telling CNN that threatening to destroy Iran’s civilization was “not tough rhetoric, it’s insanity.” Candace Owens, the far-right podcaster, called him “a genocidal lunatic.” Alex Jones, the conspiracy theorist and founder of Infowars, said Mr. Trump “does babble and sounds like the brain’s not doing too hot.”
Some of the questions about Mr. Trump’s soundness come from people who once worked with him and have since become critics. Even before the civilization post, Ty Cobb, a White House lawyer in Mr. Trump’s first term, told the journalist Jim Acosta that the president is “a man who is clearly insane” and that his recent string of belligerent, middle-of-the-night social media posts “highlights the level of his insanity.” Stephanie Grisham, a former White House press secretary for Mr. Trump, wrote online last week that “he’s clearly not well.”
Mr. Trump fired back in a long, angry social media post that did not exactly radiate calm stability. “They have one thing in common, Low IQs,” he wrote of Ms. Owens, Mr. Jones, Megyn Kelly and Tucker Carlson. “They’re stupid people, they know it, their families know it, and everyone else knows it, too!” He threw the crazy charge back at them. “They’re NUT JOBS, TROUBLEMAKERS, and will say anything necessary for some ‘free’ and cheap publicity.”
When Margorie Taylor Green and Alex Jones are questioning your sanity, you’re in trouble.
Alas:
The dissent on the right has not extended to Congress, where Republican lawmakers remain publicly loyal to the president, nor has it reached the cabinet, which would have to approve any invocation of the 25th Amendment, rendering that idea moot. But it reflects growing unease among Americans who in recent surveys have increasingly questioned the fitness of Mr. Trump, already the oldest president ever inaugurated, as he approaches his 80th birthday.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll in February found that 61 percent of Americans think Mr. Trump has become more erratic with age and just 45 percent say he is “mentally sharp and able to deal with challenges,” down from 54 percent in 2023. Roughly half of Americans, 49 percent, deemed Mr. Trump too old to be president when asked in a YouGov poll in September, up from 34 percent in February 2024, while just 39 percent said he was not too old.
Meanwhile, we’re immersed in a war initiated and operated under this man’s orders.
But, sure, silly memes are the main issue.
Welcome back! As you can see, everything in the world remained totally normal and not at all super weird while you were away.
@James: When I wrote about this yesterday, I didn’t think it was going to be as big a story as it turned out to be. Like you, it seems lower down the list of transgressions. Heck, I would have thought dropping f-bombs on Easter would have gotten more of a rise out of Evangelicals than this did.
I do have to wonder if this isn’t a straw that (temporarily, I suspect) broke the camel’s back insfoar as the f-bombs, the threatened civilizational destruction, gas prices, and a host of other things have to be creating tension, even for his supporters.
I think your conclusion that this wont change anything is correct. It’s obvious he was lying when he said he thought it was just portraying him as a doctor. Its imagery that in Western civilization is reserved for divinity and especially Jesus. Doesnt matter. Half of MAGA already thinks he is at least Jesus adjacent. The other half are firmly in the cult anyway so they will find a way to explain it and move on. In fact, they will concentrate more heavily on the “liberal media” spreading the story and that is where most of the criticism will mostly lie.
They truly believe that liberals are all trying to destroy the country. That they are trying to turn all of their kids trans or gay, maybe both. That they are trying to make sharia law the law of the country. Makes it easier to explain away Trump if you hold those beliefs.
Steve
I don’t know why we’re working so hard on nuclear fusion when motivated reasoning is clearly the most powerful force in the universe.
But maybe, coupled with the Iran war evidence of Trump’s malignant stupidity, a few will see the light.
Why did he do it? His motivation?
Here is one possible assessment: (Focussed on the insult to the Pope, but I say applies as well to the Jesusy meme)
(I disagree with this take on the public reaction, but the description of Trump behavior more valid)
“Mike Brock”
ETA: Also worth checking out:
https://vladvexler.substack.com/
@charontwo:
Nice. My position for a decade now has been that you don’t understand Trump by thinking ideology or political calculation, he’s a mentally disturbed person, a really damaged malformed psyche. A psychopath. Understanding Trump is a job for psychiatrists more than political scientists.
@Steven L. Taylor: @gVOR10: I have hopes that this will be the proverbial final straw. But we’ve had so many, with January 6 being the most egregious, and supporters managed to rally and the Republican Establishment, such as it is, remained cowardly.
I’ve said a number of times the wingnuts care more about the symbols of the country than what does symbols represent. It seems it’s more of the same when it comes to their religion.
If they cared a whit about the substance of their beliefs, they’d be mad as hell about El Taco’s corruption, rape, cruelty, etc. As is, what would set them off is disrespecting the symbols of their belief.
Is Matt handling the back end on OTB because I have a small beef. (A calf?) I changed my Gravatar picture months ago, but OTB does not update. The Gandalf the White thing was supposed to be a goof, not my permanent brand.
@James Joyner:
While it would be nice for this to be the straw, like you, I doubt it. The only and likely last chance of his base cracking will be the midterms. If the blue wave is large enough, probably 50 seats needed and Dems take the senate, then at least the elected R’s could abandon him, but the base voters? For the party pros, he’ll be a lame duck and have far less influence, so crossing him won’t be as risky.
That said, I doubt it will happen.
@James Joyner:
As have I, for going on ten years now.
@Kathy: Its important to remember that most of the “Christians” on the right are just cultural Christians and are not true believers. In the same way most are only “patriotic” about stuff and beliefs they like. Protests that invaded our capitol or ones that invaded government buildings during covid were patriotic. Protests against ICE or Trump or over dead black men were un-American.
Steve
@Sleeping Dog: even if D’s take the Senate, it will be narrow. We’d need 15 or 16 GOPs to vote to convict on impeachment. I like to think GOP senators will see the damage to the Party and be willing to remove him in favor of, gawd help us, JD. But their loyalty to the Party is as deep as their patriotism. Ain’t gonna happen. And a 25A removal is so awkward and drawn out it’s virtually impossible absent a prez in a vegetative state (the Trump jokes write themselves).
I see little hope for removing Trump before Jan ’29 except health or, per @charontwo: things getting a lot worse. ETTD. I feel like our only hope is things so bad impeachment or 25A enter the picture, but short of fatal damage to the country. Fwck.
Let’s take him at his word that he believes the depiction is of a Doctor. Clearly his cognitive decline is accelerating and he must be relieved of duty. And where exactly is the Red Cross? I see a nurse, but no evidence of the Red Cross. He’s gone way around the bend.
Something must be done.
@gVOR10:
I’m not talking about impeachment, that’s a bridge too far. Pro R’s breaking w/the felon would be publically and clearly criticizing him, supporting and actively participation into committee hearing to ferret out the truth about what his admin is doing. Looking into the self dealing and corruption. Perhaps join in drafting a constitutional amendment that circumscribes presidential pardon power. Putting a stop to his ballroom and vanity arch.
Unless he dies, we’re stuck with the moron till January, 2029.
Maybe someone could hack his Pravda social account, and insert more memes like that, or more extreme. How about a rendition of the Sistine chapel ceiling with El Taco imparting the spark of life to Adam?
Of course, to avoid further backlash in this meme, El Taco should be depicted in a suit and tie, rather than a tunic or robes.
Incidentally, anyone noticed that really weird looking creature in the sky, in the centre of the sunburst, that looks like it has four arms and a spiky crown?
Hail Lucifer?
Unexpected plot ending:
Pope excorcises White House.
President vanishes in a cloud of smoke.
Also, Irish joke:
“Well, it’s not the first time an orangeman has insulted the Pope.”
@JohnSF:
The weird figures were decoded yesterday by @restless, right here at OTB.
Trump trying to explain both the Jesus meme and the spat with the Pope was the classic man trying to get out of a hole by digging deeper. Claiming he thought he was being depicted as a doctor is so laughably dumb (and patently dishonest) that he would have been better off saying a member of his comms team went rogue. Doubling down on the Pope is just wrong notion generated absurdities like, “the Pope is in favor of Iran having a nuclear bomb,” and the Pope is “pro crime.” Infantile is too gentle a description of what tumbles out of Trump’s mouth. The mainstream media is desperately seeking a synonym for ‘unhinged.’
@JohnSF:
I’ve played around with Bing Image Generator and other AIs and they do haven’t quite mastered images and infographics. They interpret words as pictures, for example, and thus inevitably have weird misspellings. They are rather fantastic, though, at generating short-form podcasts, charts and tables to illustrate points in an article, and the like.
In a way this is a classic Trump power move, issuing an image which pokes his followers in the eye and then forcing them to accept and repeat an absolutely moronic explanation.
If, you know, we thought he was still capable of rational thought……