{"id":137622,"date":"2026-04-14T05:02:49","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T05:02:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/trump-deletes-post-depicting-him-as-jesus-like-figure-after-backlash\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T05:02:49","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T05:02:49","slug":"trump-deletes-post-depicting-him-as-jesus-like-figure-after-backlash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/trump-deletes-post-depicting-him-as-jesus-like-figure-after-backlash\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump deletes post depicting him as Jesus-like figure after backlash"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>WASHINGTON, Apr 14 \u2013 Faced with growing backlash, US President Donald Trump appears to have removed a controversial Truth Social post depicting himself as a Jesus-like figure.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The AI-generated image, which showed Trump appearing to heal a sick man in a hospital bed, sparked fierce backlash from both sides of the US political spectrum, including from some of Trump\u2019s most ardent supporters.<\/p>\n<p>The post came just hours after Trump posted a lengthy message criticising Pope Leo XIV, a vocal critic of the US and Israeli military operation in Iran.<\/p>\n<p>Trump acknowledged posting the picture, telling reporters he thought it was \u201cme as a doctor\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>The now-deleted image showed Trump, wearing a white robe, with a glowing hand on the forehead of a sick man, which critics said was similar to religious paintings showing Jesus healing the infirm.<\/p>\n<p>The background of the images included the Statue of Liberty, a large US flag fluttering, fighter jets and an eagle, as well as a nurse, a woman praying and what appeared to be a soldier in uniform.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking to reporters several hours after it was removed, Trump said he believed the image depicted him as a doctor next to a Red Cross worker.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s supposed to be as a doctor making people better,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I do make people better. I make people a lot better.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He later told CBS News, the BBC\u2019s US partner, that he removed the image because he \u201cdidn\u2019t want to have anybody be confused. People were confused\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Criticism of the image came swiftly, including from figures considered close to Trump and the administration.<\/p>\n<p>The controversial image was posted less than an hour after a separate post from the US president in which he criticised the pope, calling him \u201cweak on crime\u201d and \u201cterrible for foreign policy\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Pope Leo \u2013 the first American Pope \u2013 has repeatedly condemned the war in Iran, saying it has led to \u201cabsurd and inhuman violence\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>The pope said on Monday that he has \u201cno fear\u201d of the Trump administration or \u201cspeaking out loudly of the message of the Gospel, which is what I believe I am here to do\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump did not apologise.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPope Leo said things that are wrong,\u201d he said. \u201cHe was very much against what I\u2019m doing with regard to Iran, and you cannot have a nuclear Iran. Pope Leo would not be happy with the end result.\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WASHINGTON, Apr 14 \u2013 Faced with growing backlash, US President Donald Trump appears to have removed a controversial Truth Social post depicting himself as a Jesus-like figure. The AI-generated image, which showed Trump appearing to heal a sick man in a hospital bed, sparked fierce backlash from both sides of the US political spectrum, including [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-137622","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137622","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137622"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137622\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}