President Donald Trump on Monday denied being the source of the AI-generated image of him as the pope that went viral on social media over the weekend.
The image shows Trump sitting on an ornate chair wearing white papal robes and a large golden cross necklace.
Although the image was shared on his personal social media accounts, as well as by the White House, Trump said he had “nothing to do with it” and has “no idea where it came from.”
“Somebody made up a picture of me dressed like the pope, and they put it out on the internet. That’s not me that did it,” he said during a press conference about the 2027 NFL draft coming to Washington, D.C.
Trump had been asked to respond to the backlash to the image, which has been described as offensive or in poor taste by some prominent Catholic leaders.
“There is nothing clever or funny about this image, Mr. President,” wrote the New York State Catholic Conference in an X post on Saturday. “We just buried our beloved Pope Francis and the cardinals are about to enter a solemn conclave to elect a new successor of St. Peter. Do not mock us.”
Trump said Monday that most Catholics were fine with the picture even if the “fake news media” was not, according to The New York Times.
“The Catholics loved it,” he said.
He argued that it’s not a problem for official White House social media accounts to share jokes.
“Somebody did it in fun,” Trump said. “You have to have a little fun, don’t you?”
The president added that Melania Trump, who is Catholic, thought the image of him as pope was “cute.”
“Actually, my wife thought it was cute,” he said. “She said, ‘Isn’t that nice?’”
Vice President JD Vance, who is also Catholic, has not commented at length on the image, but he did respond to an X post about it on Saturday.
“As a general rule, I’m fine with people telling jokes,” Vance said.
Melania Trump and the president recently traveled to Rome together for Pope Francis’ funeral.
The conclave to pick the pope’s successor begins on Wednesday.