The View hosts slammed Donald Trump’s outrageous AI-generated image of himself as Jesus, labeling it “blasphemous.”
Over the weekend, amid his feud with Pope Leo XIV, the president shared a doctored image of himself dressed as Jesus, in white robes and a red sash, putting his hand to the forehead of a sick man. He appears to have since deleted the post.
During Monday’s segment of the ABC talk show, the hosts displayed the picture on the screen behind them as they addressed Trump’s recent Truth Social rant, in which he called the Pope “WEAK on crime” and “terrible for foreign policy.”
“I think our founding fathers did a lot of things right, and the 25th Amendment is there for a reason,” began Sunny Hostin, a devout Catholic. Ratified in 1967 following JFK’s assassination, the amendment gives power to the executive branch to begin the process of removing a president who has been deemed unfit to serve.
“No one holds that office, which is arguably the most powerful office in the world, and does things like that,” Hostin added, with her voice breaking.
Whoopi Goldberg stepped in to insist that the picture be taken down from the screen, as Alyssa Farah Griffin added: “In the Christian faith, this is considered blasphemy: blasting yourself as Christ, elevating yourself to the level of Christ.”
“It’s blasphemous,” Hostin agreed.
“I did see some very prominent MAGA supporters who are diehards, even saying as much, saying, ‘Please take this down,’” Griffin continued. “And to declare kind of an open season on the Pope, the leader of the largest faith in the United States, the most charitable faith, and that also makes up a big portion of Trump’s base, makes no sense to me, because this happens as he’s bleeding MAGA supporters for the war in Iran.”
Adding that Trump is “offending our faith,” Griffin noted: “Our faith is bigger than our politics. That is one thing that will always trump politics for people who are practicing in their faith. He clearly doesn’t understand that.
“He sees it as meme-worthy, as funny, as something to be mocked,” she said. “God is not to be mocked.”
The Independent has contacted the White House for comment. Trump did speak to reporters outside the White House after deleting the photo.
“I did post it and I thought it was me as a doctor and had to do with Red Cross,” Trump told reporters during Monday’s hastily arranged press conference. “It’s supposed to be me as a doctor, making people better. And I do make people better. I make people a lot better.”
He blamed “fake news” for comparing the image to Jesus and refused to apologize to the pope, who “said things that are wrong,” according to Trump.
Trump’s public feud with the pope has escalated in recent days, after the head of the Catholic Church criticized Trump’s warning that an “entire civilization will die tonight,” in reference to Iran, as “unacceptable.” The pope has also suggested that a “delusion of omnipotence” is fueling the war between the United States and Iran.
The president later posted a lengthy message on Truth Social, claiming that the Catholic Church’s leadership had been “arresting priests, ministers, and everybody else” in the midst of the Covid pandemic and suggested that he preferred the pope’s brother.
“I like his brother Louis much better than I like him, because Louis is all MAGA,” the president blasted. “He gets it, and Leo doesn’t!
“I don’t want a Pope who thinks it’s OK for Iran to have a Nuclear Weapon.”
Pope Leo responded to the president’s angry message Monday and said he would always speak out in favor of peace. “I have no fear of the Trump administration, or speaking out loudly of the message of the gospel, which is what I believe I am here to do, what the Church is here to do,” he told reporters. “I don’t want to get into a debate with Trump.”
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