A Word on that Image of Trump as the Pope

I guess I need to say something about the tacky AI image of Donald Trump as the Pope.

In case you’ve been living under a rock the past few days, get back under the rock and save yourself the trouble, because this is extremely silly. Donald Trump has been joking that he’d make a good new Pope, now that Pope Francis is deceased. I wouldn’t begrudge him one or two tasteless jokes in that vein; everyone’s making them just now. But Trump just doubled down on the unfunny bit by posting an extremely tacky AI image of himself, sitting on the Papal throne, and making a weird gesture while wearing rather  small miter. I don’t know how the AI managed to get five fingers on each hand and a perfect rendition of Trump’s turkey neck but messed up the large, ungainly-looking hat the Pope is known for by people who don’t know anything about the Pope.

In addition to the miter being a mite too small, the AI opted to portray Pope Trump making a one-fingered “naughty naughty” hand motion instead of the standard “Gesture of Benediction” the Pope makes. The Pope is supposed to hold up his index finger, middle finger and thumb, while gracefully curling the ring finger and pinky. This is another Papal trademark which is so ubiquitous that there’s a medical condition named after it.  It’s a gesture that goes all the way back to Peter and is rich in theological significance. I’ve been told that the gesture Pope Trump is making in the image is actually the Tawhid (one God) gesture from Islam, but this is probably not what the AI intended.

I’m not worried that Trump will somehow declare himself the Pope, of course. I’m a bit concerned that this will become an irritating routine for him. Our president has a habit of making a ridiculous joke, waiting to see the reaction, and then doubling down and insisting that it’s not a joke anymore. I think that’s how the obsession with buying Greenland started. I don’t think he’s going to try to invade the Vatican, but he might try to put an extra tariff on little plastic holy water containers shaped like the Virgin Mary.

I am actually surprised at how many people are extremely offended at the image.

Plenty of people are beside themselves. Cardinal Pablo Virgilio David calls it “not funny.” The New York State Catholic Conference agrees that “there is nothing clever or funny about the image.” Even Cardinal Timothy Dolan, who never met a rich and powerful person he didn’t want to kiss up to, said the image “wasn’t good.”

Personally, for me, the image doesn’t even ping on my radar. Not that it isn’t offensive, but Trump has done far, far worse to Catholics.

Trump’s visit to the John Paul the Second Shrine in 2020 was a lot more offensive to me, because it wasn’t just a fake image that didn’t really happen anywhere. He was actually standing in a church, not to pray and not to attend a Mass but to promote a political agenda. He wasn’t Catholic but just wanted to show off to court our vote.  For that famous creepy photo of him and Melania to be staged, the photographer must have gone and stood behind the altar. That’s far closer to sacrilege than an AI picture.

Of course, in the years leading up to the 2020 debacle, Trump was responsible for tearing apart families at the Southern border. As a Catholic, I find that horrendously offensive, not just because a lot of those families were Catholic. Some of those traumatized little ones were surely named Jesús. Some of those terrified moms were surely named Maria. All of them were made in the image and likeness of God. Countries have the right and responsibility to keep their citizens safe by securing the border, but that doesn’t mean we ever have permission to be cruel to our fellow human beings.

Cruelty offends me, as a Catholic.

Donald Trump’s administration has now redoubled his cruelty to immigrants and to Latin people in general, sending innocent men to foreign gulags,  banishing little children who are natural born citizens to a country they’ve never known, even deporting children with cancer. As a Catholic, I find that gravely offensive.

Catholic bishops sued the government, and eventually had to stop resettling refugees, because of the Trump administration. That’s heartbreaking to me, as a Catholic.

Those things are offensive.

A stupid AI image of Trump in an undersized miter wagging an oversized finger, just doesn’t bother me as much.

Meanwhile, the White House’s official Twitter account has published another image of Trump, this time as a Star Wars character with a red light saber and weird veiny biceps, in honor of Star Wars Day. There is a kerfuffle in the comments because apparently, the president honestly didn’t know that a red light saber means he’s a Sith and not a Jedi.

Now that’s an image that’s perfectly apt.