The conclave to elect a new pope has yet to begin, but President Donald Trump already has a pitch for who should lead the Roman Catholic Church: himself.
On Friday, May 2, Trump posted an AI-generated image of himself as the pope on Truth Social. The official White House X account then reposted the image.
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The post comes days after Trump, who is not Catholic, told reporters he should be the next pope.
"I'd like to be pope. That would be my number one choice," he said, before adding: "I have no preference. 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.”
Trump was likely referring to New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan, whom he appointed to serve on the newly established Religious Liberty Commission alongside figures like TV personality Dr. Phil and former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson. According to Reuters and the BBC, Dolan is not on the shortlists of likely successors to the late Pope Francis.
Trump's fan casting of himself as the new Pope sparked waves of reaction on social media, from debates about whether it was facetious or genuine to further memes and AI-generated images.
The pope image isn't the first time Trump has posted fake AI-generated pictures. In the lead-up to the 2024 election, he shared an AI-generated image of Kamala Harris holding a communist rally and an AI endorsement from Taylor Swift.
