Woe to those who manipulate religion and the very name of God for their own military, economic and political gain, dragging that which is sacred into the darkness and filth.
Pope Leo XIV, April 16, 2026
Trump posted another meme degrading Jesus yesterday. This one had Jesus holding Trump in His arms.
I took a screenshot of it for you. Here it is.
Notice that in this one, Trump appeals to the divisions our society to align Jesus with himself. He also says that those who oppose him when he equates himself with the Lord is a “Radical Left Lunatic.”
The post he chose also reflects this with its talk about child sacrifice. That sounds like an allusion to abortion. Using abortion to say that no other sin — even mocking Christ Himself — is an actual sin, is a lie. It’s a political trick to get us to vote for moral monsters.
I won’t go into the evidence in the Epstein Files of the things that Trump has done to children, or the many thousands of children who have been killed because of Trump’s actions this past year. I will just say that I think he chose this particular meme because the verbiage accompanying it is what his evangelical base has been trained to respond to.
He’s conflating himself with Jesus Christ, and using hate talk to blind people so they can’t think and will go along with it. He’s softening you up to turn your back on Christ. Trump is using these memes to teach his base to accept open, frank and idolatrous worship of himself.
Meanwhile, Trump’s political stooges and whore preachers have begun their doo-dah. They are lining up to support his blasphemous attempt to conflate himself with Jesus Christ.
Sean Hannity, who is basically a Trump campaign official who moonlights as a Fox News commentator, took a swipe at Pope Leo, asking if the Pope had “read the Bible.”
JD Vance, who is planning to release a political puff book all about his conversion to Catholicism, scolded Pope Leo for calling for peace. Vance said that “The pope should be more careful when talking about theology.”
Franklin Graham stepped up to say that the outrage about Trump posting a meme of himself as Jesus Christ was “a lot of to do about nothing.”
As an aside, I have to say that the son of Billy Graham saying that Trump’s idolatrous and blasphemous attacks on the sovereignty of Christ is “a lot of do about nothing” is really sad. To paraphrase Hannity, has Franklin Graham read the Bible?
And so on.
This is the same tactic Trump used after he tried to overturn the election he lost in 2020. At first, the public was outraged. I know, because I am close to a lot of fervent MAGA people, that even his base saw what he did, understood it, and were outraged by it.
They knew Trump had tried to overturn our democracy. They knew he was lying about losing the election. And they were mad.
Then Trump turned loose his right wing news media and his chattering billionaire-financed podcasters, and billionaire-financed “christian” ministries and all his whore preachers.
They lied and lied and lied. They lied exactly the way Joseph Goebbels said to lie, If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.
That’s how Trump got the American people to re-elect someone that they knew had tried to destroy American democracy in real time right in front of their faces. Now, he using the same tactic on Jesus Christ.
Trump is insisting that you and I set aside the Gospels and the teachings of the Catholic Church. He is making it a test of loyalty to him that we turn on the Pope and accept his blasphemies against Our Lord.
The new rule of MAGA is that nobody, including our Church and Our Lord, comes before Trump.
Trump isn’t backing down. He isn’t stopping. He’s ramping it up.
The anti-Catholic attacks started weeks ago inside the Pentagon and with right wing podcasters. Since Trump posted that meme on Orthodox Easter, they’ve really picked up and turned ugly.
I watched one right wing podcaster last night repeat all the old Jack Chick lies almost verbatim. The only real difference is that he was using “bro” language and attitude to do it.
It was so long ago that I made my choice to follow Christ that I may be forgetting how hard it was.
I had to go public with my sins and admit what I had done. I had to take the drubbing that followed. My friends became my enemies. I was called names, shunned, attacked.
It hurt. It all hurt. There were no compensations. It was very painful, and it hurt.
These hero deals are only clean and neat in movies and books. When they drove the nails in Jesus’ wrists, it hurt.
Choosing Christ comes with a price. Even now, I’ve had people tell me I should get out of the Catholic Church because I oppose Trump. That made me angry a few times. But mostly I feel sorry for them. I know they’re trapped in a delusion. I do pray for them. I pray a lot.
But if you are somebody who has followed Trump for 10 years, and all your friends follow Trump, and everyone at your church follows Trump …
… if your Rosary group, your Bible study, your pals and buddies and confidants and friends are all fanatic followers of Trump …
… if you’ve spent 10 years enclosed in the Trumpsphere and now you see the stark choice in front of you …
Jesus or Trump.
You have to choose. If you don’t choose, that’s a choice; that’s a denial of Christ.
God has placed before us the same choice He placed before the Israelites thousands of years ago: Life or Death, Christ or Idolatry.
That’s why I asked if Franklin Graham had read the Bible. There are two messages that run throughout the Bible from beginning to end. One message is that Jesus Christ is Lord and Mary is His mother. The other message is that if you abandon the real God to follow false gods, then the real God will abandon you.
This is it.
This is it.
This is the question you have to answer. Who is Lord of your life? Is it Christ? Because if it’s Christ, it can’t be anyone else, including Trump.
If you are deep into the Trump world and you choose Christ, all your buddies and friends will view you as a traitor. And it’s going to hurt.
That’s the price. And it will hurt when you pay it.
Choosing Christ is not all ponies and rainbows. It has a price.
Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. Matthew 5:11-13
I read this verse when I was being attacked for following Jesus. I believed it. But the attacks and loneliness still hurt.
It’s absolutely true that people who attack you for following Christ are giving you the Kingdom of heaven. But it still hurts.
Trump is forcing you to choose.
I choose Christ.
I pray with all my heart that you will do the same.
Fox Host Sean Hannity Swipes at Pope Leo XIV Over Peace Plea, Asks if He’s “Read the Bible”
Vance Says the Pope Should Be More Careful When Talking About Theology
Speaker Mike Johnson Blames Pope for Being Attacked by Trump
Catholic Convert JD Vance Mansplains Theology to the Pope
Delusional Trump, 79, Brags He’s a Global Savior After Insane Jesus Post
Ex-Fox News Host Spots ‘Scary’ Message In Donald Trump’s Jesus Posts
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