The White House has dropped a new trolling tactic—and many Catholics are not laughing.
Less than two weeks after the death of Pope Francis, on Friday, the White House reposted on X a seemingly AI-generated meme that Trump shared on Truth Social of himself as the pope. In the eyes of many Catholics, Trump, who was raised Presbyterian and more recently said he’s a non-denominational Christian, has committed a grave act of blasphemy by posting the image.
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“There is nothing clever or funny about this image, Mr. President,” the New York State Catholic Conference, a policy and lobbying organization, posted on X. “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.” Dennis Poust, executive director of the Conference, told the New York Times the post was “disrespectful,” adding, “It’s never appropriate to ridicule or mock the papacy.”
When reporters asked about the image, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Archbishop of New York, replied, “I hope he didn’t have anything to do with that,” referring to the creation of the image. (It was not immediately clear who made the image.) Dolan added, “It wasn’t good.”
Michael Steele, former Republican National Committee chairman and a devout Catholic, wrote on X that the post “affirms how unserious and incapable he is.”
Anthony Scaramucci, former White House Communications Director during Trump’s first term, who is also Catholic, wrote over the White House’s X post: “You are trolling and trying to trigger all of us. Especially us Catholics. But the arrogance and general stupidity and the disgrace that you represent will blow back on all of you.” Scaramucci followed up Saturday night with another post: “The dope of dopes not a pope.”
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Author: Julianne McShane
Julianne McShane is Mother Jones’ news and engagement writer, focusing on daily news coverage and stories at the intersection of gender and inequity.
