An AI-generated image depicting US President Donald Trump as Jesus Christ has been pulled from Truth Social after spokesperson Mike Johnson personally intervened to ask the US president to “delete” it.
Johnson intervenes when controversy erupts
House Speaker Mike Johnson confirmed on Tuesday that he personally urged President Donald Trump to remove from social media a widely criticized image generated by artificial intelligence — an image that appeared to depict the president as Jesus Christ.
“I asked him to delete it,” Johnson told reporters, according to a Politico report.
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The image, which Trump posted late Sunday night on Truth Social without any caption, shows a figure in a flowing robe placing a hand on the forehead of a bedridden man surrounded by a nurse, a soldier and a respectful-looking Trump supporter. The background consisted of American flags, fireworks and the Statue of Liberty. It was deleted on Monday morning.
A spokesman for Johnson said he reached out to Trump directly after seeing the post and told him he didn’t believe it was “received in the same way he intended. He agreed and took it down.”
Trump says he thought it depicted a doctor, not Jesus
Donald Trump rejected the interpretation that the painting drew a parallel between him and Christ. Speaking to reporters, he insisted that he believed the red-rimmed robed figure was meant to represent a doctor — not Jesus Christ.
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Trump explained to Johnson that he understood the post and did not think the image was sacrilegious, Politic quoted the congressman as saying.
Despite the deletion, Trump defended the post on Monday, saying critics had misread the depiction.
Republican will cuts across party lines
The reaction from among Republicans was swift and, above all, unusually frank. Johnson, a devout Christian and senior members of his GOP leadership circle, which includes several Catholic lawmakers, has drawn calls from constituents, fellow lawmakers and church groups outraged by the post, according to a Politico report citing three people familiar with the development.
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Former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a prominent MAGA loyalist who previously endorsed Trump, interrupted the post and condemned the image, saying she was “praying against him,” especially in light of Trump’s current public spat with the Pope.
Rep. Austin Scott was equally forthright. “This is not right,” he said Tuesday, adding that “God will not be mocked.”
The Pope responds – and pushes back
Notably, Trump spent the same weekend attacking Pope Leo XIV. in a rather lengthy Truth Social post, claiming that the Pope was soft on crime and “terrible on foreign policy.”
Pope Leo XIV he responded on Monday that he was not afraid of the Trump administration. He also appeared to focus on a broader pattern of behavior, stating that he did not think “the message of the gospel should be misused in the way that some people do… I will continue to speak out against war”.
Are cracks forming in the MAGA base?
What may worry Trump’s inner circle more than the image itself is what the reaction reveals about the mood among his supporters. According to a Politico report, the episode deepens rifts within the MAGA coalition at an already tense time.
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The backlash has hit evangelical Protestants, traditional Catholics and populist conservatives who form the backbone of Trump’s base — a sign of how little grace key supporters are willing to extend at a time when frustrations are already mounting.
Conservative radio host Erick Erickson, a respected voice among evangelical voters, said the image may have been the last straw for supporters tired of unfulfilled expectations.
“They’re not getting what they voted for to begin with. Plus, whether their religion is being mocked intentionally or not, it’s still being done,” Erickson said. “I don’t think we’re really looking at a MAGA crack as such, but a large part of the base is irritated enough to start looking behind Trump.”
