About a week ago, just days after Pope Francis’ funeral, a reporter asked Donald Trump for his thoughts on the Roman Catholic church’s next leader. “I’d like to be pope,” the president told reporters. “That would be my number one choice.”
It seemed rather obvious that he was kidding. In fact, as part of the same exchange, Trump went on to say, “No, I don’t know. I have no preference.” In apparent reference to Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the president added, “I must say, we have a cardinal that happens to be out of a place called New York who’s very good, so we’ll see what happens.”
The comments raised a few eyebrows and generated a weird tweet from Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, but the story quickly faded.
That is, until Trump and the White House started leaning into the joke. The New York Times reported:
He took the joke a step further on Saturday, sharing on social media what appeared to be an A.I.-generated photo of himself wearing the traditional vestments of the pope. The photo depicts him in a white cassock with a cross around his neck, his face solemn as he raises a pointed finger. The origins of the photo were not immediately clear, and Mr. Trump did not include any commentary in his post. He shared the image on Truth Social, Instagram and X, and the White House reposted it on its official Instagram and X accounts.
Just so we’re all clear, Trump isn’t Catholic. Even if he were, there is no scenario in which he’d be considered for a leadership position at the Vatican. Given the circumstances, this is a deeply strange attempt at humor, which hasn’t been well received among many in the church.
“There is nothing clever or funny about this image, Mr. President,” the New York State Catholic Conference said in an online statement. “We just buried our beloved Pope Francis and the cardinals are about to enter a solemn conclave to elect a new successor of St. Peter. Do not mock us.”
Cardinal Dolan, after being touted a week earlier by the president, told NBC News that the image Trump and the White House promoted “wasn’t good.” Dolan added in Italian that the image made a bad impression.
NBC News went on to note that former Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi wrote online that the image posted by the president “offends believers, insults institutions and shows that the leader of the global right enjoys being a clown.” Similarly, La Repubblica, a prominent left-leaning publication in Italy, featured the image on its homepage, alongside commentary accusing Trump of “pathological megalomania.”
Meanwhile, James Martin, a Jesuit priest who is editor-at-large for the Jesuit publication America Magazine, added that “even though I find this deeply offensive, I will presume that Mr. Trump meant this light-heartedly.” Martin went on to note, however, “But imagine the incandescent outrage, the swift condemnation, and the individual and joint protests from the US bishops if this had been done by Joe Biden or Barack Obama.” For his part, JD Vance — who is Catholic and who met with the pope shortly before his passing — was quick to defend Trump, saying he’s “fine with people telling jokes.” Last fall, however, when Michigan’s Democratic governor, Gretchen Whitmer, promoted a joke related to communion, the vice president condemned the humor as “sacrilegious” and “offensive.” Perhaps when Vance said he’s “fine with people telling jokes,” he meant he’s fine with Republicans telling jokes. Either way, Trump occasionally likes to present himself as leading some kind of religious revival in the United States, but the fact remains that when he’s not using faith as a sword against his perceived political foes, he’s using it as a punch line to an unnecessary joke.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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