Trump Responds To Criticism After Posting AI Video

President Donald Trump shrugged off criticism Monday over an AI-generated image of himself dressed as the pope, brushing aside concerns about its appropriateness with characteristic bravado—and a few jokes.

President Trump on the A.I. picture of him as the Pope: “My wife thought it was cute… You have to have a little fun, don’t you?” pic.twitter.com/cJdBVE6Bvo

— ALX 🇺🇸 (@alx) May 5, 2025

The image, which was posted over the weekend by the official White House account, quickly went viral, showing Trump in full papal regalia: white robes, a golden cross, and a red mozzetta. The photo, widely recognized as an AI creation, sparked both amusement and backlash, especially among some Catholic commentators and traditional religious groups.

But when confronted about the image in the Oval Office by a reporter who said, “Some Catholics were not so happy about the image of you looking like the Pope,” Trump was quick to deflect.

“Oh, I see—you mean they can’t take a joke; you don’t mean the Catholics, you mean the fake news media… The Catholics loved it,” Trump replied.

Trump made clear that he was not the originator of the image nor involved in its posting.

“I had nothing to do with it,” he said. “Somebody made up a picture of me dressed like the Pope, and they put it out on the internet… Maybe it was AI, but I know nothing about it. I just saw it last evening.”

He even brought First Lady Melania Trump into the moment, saying she found the image “cute.”

“She said, ‘Isn’t that nice?’ Actually, I would not be able to be married, though, that would be a lot,” Trump joked, referencing the papal vow of celibacy. His quip drew laughter from NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, who was seated beside him.

When the reporter pressed again, suggesting that the image might diminish the substance of the official White House account, Trump rolled his eyes—verbally, at least.

“Give me a break. Somebody did it in fun, it’s fine. You have to have a little fun, don’t you?”

Trump, who has made religious liberty a key talking point in his second term, has often courted Catholic voters through policy promises and high-profile speeches defending faith in public life. The viral AI image, while clearly intended as satire or symbolic play, threw a curveball into that dynamic.

Still, Trump appears unfazed by the controversy, using it instead to cast the media as humorless and his critics as overly sensitive. For him, it was another day of blurring the line between presidential seriousness and populist showmanship—an image that may have been digitally generated, but one that perfectly captured the tone of Trump’s uniquely theatrical presidency.