This is the most blasphemous content I have seen from any source in recent years.

Earlier today Donald Trump posted this image which many viewers interpret as him depicted as Jesus Christ. When asked about it by reporters he said,

“It wasn’t depicting. It was me. I did post it and I thought it was me as a doctor and had to do with the Red Cross, there’s a Red Cross worker there which we support. Only the fake news could come up with that one. I just heard about it and I said, ‘How did they come up with that?’ It’s supposed to be me as a doctor making people better, and I do make people better. I make people a lot better.”

This text is taken from a video of him speaking, which was shared in a BBC report covering the backlash to this image and reporting that Trump had deleted it.

Before we go on here is the image, included for fair use commentary purposes:

First of all, I believe that Trump’s reply to reporters is disingenuous, and simply does not reflect the truth that is obvious to viewers of the image. It has a deceptive effect, whether that is deliberate or not. He wasn’t simply reposting someone else’s image as there is no credit, although some have suggested this was first seen on Nick Adams’ Twitter in February though it’s not there now. It is unclear at this point how Trump found it, but the choices are either that he found it somewhere and didn’t credit it or that he actually asked AI to create it. This is a worrying thought in itself regarding his state of mind. If you are the president of the United States what does a grandiose thought look like? Well I suppose that the only way to feel more important than you already are is to start thinking you are Jesus Christ. Is that what is in his mind at the moment? Is he mentally unstable?

Whatever prompt was used it is clear that this image DOES use religious imagery, mixed with imagery of the state. The clear implication to any open-minded viewer is that, despite his denials, this image is depicting Trump as Jesus. He is not working as a doctor. He is laying his hand on a sick person’s head. His clothing, and the light are both strongly symbolic of Christ. The implication is to me also that the person praying is praying to Trump. Worryingly the religious imagery is also mixed with military images, especially at a time when he has started a conflict with an Islamic nation. This suggests strongly the idea of a religious war with him as the same kind of messing the oppressed Jews of the Roman era wanted, to conduct some kind of crusade. The contrast between this and Jesus withdrawal away when people tried to make him King seen in John 6:15 is striking.

At the top of the image are some more religious figures including one with three horns, which the Daily Mail reports some have linked to the Antichrist.

Trump’s blame of “fake media” for the backlash does not seem correct, either. Like many of his documented mistruths, it seems that the hope is those who have not seen the image will believe his denials rather than their own eyes.

And finally, I know many American Christians won’t like this one, but Trump’s policies have hardly been in favor of healing at the hands of human doctors. He has constantly been against Obamacare and other attempts to improve the quality of American healthcare for those whose financial resources are limited. In addition, healthcare-based foreign aid has been slashed. It seems cruel to describe Trump as a healer even in a medical sense.

Some Christians may say that this latest act, like all the others before it, should just be forgiven and we should recognize him as flawed but a vessel of God serving Him and doing His will. Well, this is not a suitable confession of his error to allow that response, in my view.

This blasphemous content is hardly a new departure for Trump. We have recently had him issuing a strong condemnation of the current Pope, claiming among other things that the Catholic Church only chose him because of Trump. He stated he didn’t want a Pope like this, which clearly suggests he believes that he should have a role in choosing them! This would be highly offensive to those who believe that the Pope is chosen by God.

He also made what was, on the face of it, a genocidal threat, “a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again.”

That of course came just a few days after his threats to commit what most would agree was a war crime (the destruction of civilian bridges and power plants across Iran) and included a sarcastic “Praise be to Allah” insulting every muslim and offending most Christians, posting this on Easter Sunday, the most holy of Christian days.

The BBC said there has been a backlash against this blasphemous image. I thought I would see which major Christian websites have criticized this or other recent Trump posts. Now I get that many bigger websites can’t respond quickly, and I get that nobody can comment on everything. I myself did not comment on the earlier offensive tweets of the last week or so. But many USA Christians have been his avid supporters so one might like to hope that some would speak out against this latest image.