MAGA influencer Riley Gaines has defended President Donald Trump despite his attacking her amid the controversy surrounding the AI meme he posted of himself as Jesus Christ.
“I love the president and I’m so grateful he’s in the Oval Office. Of course, I’ll continue to support him and the America First agenda,” Gaines wrote on social media Monday evening. “At the end of the day, I do nothing for the approval of man. Our purpose on this earth is to glorify Him in all we do. The Truth Social post missed the mark. It’s now deleted. Amazing!”
She continued: “We’re imperfect people. I know I am. I don’t get my feelings hurt easy and I know with the president it’s really not personal. I want to spend eternity in a real place called Heaven. I’d love for Trump to be there too.”
Her post came after the president’ dismissed her criticisms during a White House event hour earlier saying: “I didn’t listen to Riley Gaines. I’m not a big fan of Riley, actually.”
Trump and Gaines have been at several events together over the years as she is a critic of transgender women in sports. Trump called her a “tremendous athlete” at a 2025 signing of an executive order against transgender athletes. He added: “She really has been in the forefront. People that aren’t that well-versed in this would say that she was the leader. And great job, Riley. Thank you very much. Appreciate it.”
Trump set off a firestorm with his Sunday post, where he appears in an AI-generated image as a Jesus-like figure. The president subsequently took down in the face of a growing backlash and accusations of blasphemy, claiming he had meant it as a vision of himself as a doctor healing the sick, not posing as the Messiah.
“Why? Seriously, I cannot understand why he’d post this,” Gaines wrote on X Monday, initially being outspoken over the meme.
“Is he looking for a response? Does he actually think this? Either way, two things are true. 1) a little humility would serve him well 2) God shall not be mocked.”
Trump subsequently gave a phone interview to CBS News correspondent Norah O’Donnell, where he downplayed Gaines’ comments.
“Normally I don't like doing that, but I didn't want to have anybody be confused. People were confused,” Trump contended.
Trump’s surprise attack on Gaines was his latest attempt to rebuke MAGA critics of his decisions as commander-in-chief, last week issuing a lengthy post on his platform in which he took Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly, Candace Owens and Alex Jones to task over their objections to the Iran war, calling them “losers.”
The uproar over Trump’s latest meme followed his attacking Pope Leo XIV, whom he called “WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy,” an astonishing attack on the head of the Catholic Church that risked offending a huge segment of his base, a week on from issuing a foul-mouthed threat against Tehran on Easter Sunday.
While the Pope himself brushed aside the insult, the president’s latest feud with a prominent world figure made life awkward for his deputy, Vice President JD Vance, an enthusiastic convert to Catholicism who has a new book out in June about his path back to faith.
Vance assured Fox host Bret Baier on Monday that Trump’s post had been “a joke.”
“And, of course, he took it down because he recognized that a lot of people weren’t understanding his humor in that case,” the VP said. “I think the president of the United States likes to mix it up on social media.”
He also advised the Vatican to “stick to matters of morality… and let the president of the United States stick to dictating American public policy.”
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