On May 5, 2025, President Donald Trump told reporters that the AI-generated photo that showed him as as the pope had “nothing to do with” him — even though it was shared via his official social media accounts. When asked about the controversial photo, Trump claimed that he had “no idea where it came from.” He suggested, “Maybe it was AI.”
Explaining the photo, the president said, “Somebody made up a picture of me dressed like the pope and they put it out on the internet. That’s not me that did it.”
Trump went on to say that he knew “nothing about” the photo and and had only seen it for the first time the night before. The AI-generated photo of Trump dressed as the pope was posted on his Truth Social account on May 2. That same day, it was reposted by the White House on Instagram and X.
He added that his wife, Melania Trump, loved the photo and “thought it was cute.” She wasn’t the only one who apparently loved it. Trump also claimed “the Catholics” were big fans, too.
That wasn’t quite how things were playing out online, though. Many Catholics on social media told the president that they found the photo “disrespectful.” Some urged him to take it down.
“Really poor taste from the White House,” one critic wrote on X in response to the photo.
On Instagram, another person wrote: “I feel deeply insulted in my catholic faith by this picture. As a Christian mourning the death of Pope Francis, this is tremendously offensive, specially coming from someone who should model the behavior of US citizens.”
A third person wrote: “Please President Trump don’t post offensive photos like this! This is very disturbing and very demeaning to the Catholic community.”
The AI-generated photo of Trump dressed as the pope were shared shortly after Trump joked about wanting to be the next pope. On April 29, a reporter asked the president to share his thoughts on who should be the next leader of the Roman Catholic Church. “I’d like to be pope,” he joked. “That’d be my No. 1 choice.”
He then added, “No, I don’t know. I don’t have a preference. I might say, we have a cardinal that happens to be out of a place called New York who is very good. So we’ll see what happens.” But some critics worried that Trump wasn’t truly joking and the AI-generated photo seemed to confirm that.
While some social media users insisted Trump was joking around, many others found it to be incredibly “insensitive” and “inappropriate.”
