Let’s all pause for a moment to reflect on the fact that, as the Catholic Church mourns the passing of Pope Francis and prepares for one of the most solemn and spiritually significant events in its liturgical calendar—the conclave to choose the next pope—the White House decided it was the perfect time to post an AI-generated image of President Donald Trump dressed like the pope.
Yes. That happened.
Now, in any sane timeline, this would be the moment the PR team goes into hazmat mode, fires up the apology machine, and quietly deletes the image faster than you can say “Habemus faux-papam.” But not in TrumpWorld, where bad taste is just an alternate aesthetic and “I didn’t do it” is a full-time job.
“The Catholics loved it,” Trump said. Naturally. Because nothing screams spiritual reverence quite like uploading a digitally fabricated image of yourself in sacred vestments two weeks after the pope dies. The audacity, of course, is matched only by the logic: if Melania liked it, clearly it’s fine. Who needs Cardinal Dolan or, you know, any actual Catholic authority weighing in when Melania thought it was “cute”?
Also: popes can’t marry? Shocking. Thank you, Mr. President, for that very 10th-grade World Religions insight. We await your next pearls of ecclesiastical wisdom—maybe something like, “Actually, I hear they don’t even have elections, they just pray in Latin and wait for smoke.”
The setting for this strange papal Q&A? Not the Vatican. Not a press briefing. Nope—Trump was sandwiched between NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser at an announcement about the 2027 NFL Draft, turning what should have been a nothingburger photo op into a theological roast.
Goodell laughed. Bowser didn’t. America sighed.
And when asked about whether the White House account posting the image might, you know, undermine the integrity of an official government channel, Trump offered the kind of shrugging non-answer that has become his trademark: “Give me a break… just have to have a little fun, don’t you?”
Sure. Just like that time someone deepfaked George Washington doing the Macarena and posted it from the Pentagon’s Twitter. (Didn’t happen, but if it did, “just having fun” would probably cover it.)
Look, this isn’t about whether Trump is allowed to be in memes (he is) or whether AI art is inherently bad (it’s not). It’s about timing. It’s about tone. It’s about maybe not making yourself the center of attention during someone else’s funeral rites—especially when that someone is the leader of 1.3 billion Catholics.
Even some of Trump’s usual supporters in the Church found themselves doing the sign of the cringe. Bishop Paprocki called the image “deeply offensive,” the New York State Catholic Conference said it was “not clever or funny,” and even Cardinal Dolan, usually more Trump-friendly than most miters, said it “wasn’t good.”
And yet, in this timeline, nothing is sacred. Not conclaves. Not popes. Not even the idea of basic decency. Because the only cardinal rule in Trump’s America is this: if the joke lands at Mar-a-Lago, it’s a good joke.
So, while the College of Cardinals is cloistered in prayer, waiting for divine inspiration, the White House is out here producing AI cosplay content that turns a moment of mourning into a social media gag reel.
But hey, it’s just a joke, right?
.jpg)
.jpg)
