By Helen Coster
NEW YORK, April 15 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump posted an image of Jesus embracing him on Wednesday, as a war of words between his administration and the pope showed little sign of abating.
The image, reposted to Trump’s Truth Social account, shows Trump with his eyes closed, touching temple-to-temple with a similarly posed Jesus. Trump is standing behind a microphone, and behind him is an American flag. The original post had a caption that included the words: “God might be playing his Trump card!”
Trump’s repost added the caption: “The Radical Left Lunatics might not like this, but I think it is quite nice!!!”
Earlier this week, Trump posted an image portraying him as a Jesus-like figure. The post prompted widespread criticism of the Republican president, and he later deleted it.
Trump, who does not attend church regularly, has a large contingent of Christian voters among his base, including Catholics. He has been feuding with Pope Leo, the first U.S.-born leader of the Catholic Church and an outspoken critic of the war that began with U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran.
Trump reiterated his criticism of the religious leader on Tuesday night. In a separate post on Truth Social, Trump urged that “someone please tell Pope Leo” about the killings of protesters by Iran and that “for Iran to have a Nuclear Bomb is absolutely unacceptable.”
On Tuesday evening, Vice President JD Vance, who converted to Catholicism in 2019, said the pope was wrong to say that disciples of Christ are “never on the side of those who once wielded the sword and today drop bombs” and that “it’s very, very important for the pope to be careful when he talks about matters of theology.”
Leo said in response to Trump’s previous attacks that he had “no fear” of the Trump administration and would continue to speak out. In a forceful speech on Monday in Algiers, he denounced “neocolonial” world powers who he said were violating international law, without singling out specific countries.
MORE MUTED RESPONSE
The online response to Trump’s Wednesday post has been more muted than the outrage that accompanied his earlier Jesus post.
Yet high-profile individuals with ties to politics and Catholicism continued to weigh in on the administration’s feud with the pope.
On Wednesday morning the U.S.-based Knights of Columbus, the largest Catholic men’s fraternity in the world, posted on X a statement from its Supreme Knight Patrick Kelly defending the pope.
“Pope Leo XIV has consistently called for peace, dialogue, and restraint in a world marked by war and suffering,” the statement said. “The Holy Father’s words are not political talking points — they are reflections of the Gospel itself.”
Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson told attendees at a news conference that criticism of the pope was expected, however, after the religious leader waded into “political waters.”
Johnson said that he was “taken a little bit aback” by the pope’s remarks about “‘those who engage in war, that Jesus doesn’t hear their prayers’ or something.”
“It is a very well-settled matter of Christian theology,” Johnson said. “There’s something called the ‘just war’ doctrine.”
Johnson appeared to be referencing an address given by Pope Leo on March 29 in St. Peter’s Square, when the pontiff said: “(Jesus) does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them, saying: ‘Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen: your hands are full of blood’,” citing a Bible passage.
(Reporting by Helen Coster in New York; additional reporting by Brad Brooks in Colorado, Monica Naime in Mexico City, David Morgan in Washington and Christine Soares in New York; Editing by Rosalba O’Brien)
