Trump Reposts AI Image of Him Embracing Jesus, After Backlash

Donald Trump returned to the same visual terrain that had just stirred backlash, reposting an AI-generated image of himself in a close embrace with Jesus Christ in front of the American flag and calling it “quite nice.” The post landed as another example of how religious imagery, generated and amplified by artificial intelligence, has become part of Trump’s political branding and a test of how far devotion, parody and disinformation can blur in the same feed.

The image Trump reposted on Truth Social had originally appeared on X from an account called “Irish for Trump,” with a caption suggesting God might be “playing his Trump card.” It followed days of criticism over an earlier AI image Trump had posted on Sunday night, April 12, and deleted on Monday, April 13, after it showed him in a Christ-like pose above a sick man in a hospital bed. That image used patriotic symbols, including the American flag, the Statue of Liberty, bald eagles and military planes, and it circulated for roughly 13 hours before Trump took it down.

Trump tried to recast the deleted image as something else when asked about it at the White House, saying he thought it showed him “as a doctor” and referring to a Red Cross worker rather than Jesus. The explanation did not quiet the uproar. Instead, it set off unusually sharp criticism from parts of Trump’s own Christian and MAGA-aligned coalition, including evangelical writer Megan Basham, conservative activist Riley Gaines, Gen-Z conservative commentator Brilyn Hollyhand and former Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. Speaker Mike Johnson said he called Trump and urged him to remove the post, and Trump complied.

The episode came against a broader backdrop of tension with religious conservatives. Trump had already drawn fire for attacking Pope Leo XIV over the pope’s stance on the Iran war, calling him “WEAK on Crime” and “terrible for Foreign Policy.” The Knights of Columbus defended the pope and said his calls for peace and restraint reflected the Gospel. Vice President JD Vance later said on Fox News that he thought Trump was joking. The White House did not immediately comment on the deleted Jesus image.

Trump has used similar imagery before, including an AI image in May 2025 that portrayed him as the pope. The pattern shows a campaign-style media strategy built for maximum attention, where religious symbolism is repackaged as content and controversy becomes its own distribution engine.