US President Donald Trump has attacked Pope Leo XIV and shared an AI image of himself as a Christ-like figure, according to the BBC.

It said Mr Trump criticised the Pope, the first American to lead the Catholic Church, in social media posts, saying he is too liberal and too “weak on crime”.
Mr Trump’s loyal, conservative Catholic allies, unhappy about the attack, have now turned against the president, the BBC reported.

“They are unhappy, not just because of Trump’s public friction with Pope Leo, but at a much deeper level over the Iran war.”

According to the Guardian, Mr Trump was on Monday forced to take down the “blasphemous” AI-generated image after backlash from his supporters on the religious right.

“Trump’s attacks have generally not played well even among his own loyal base, and certainly not in Rome,” it reported, adding that the majority of tourists and business owners it interviewed in the city defended the Pope.

The BBC quoted Bishop Joseph Strickland, who last year participated in a prayer event to “consecrate” Mr Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home, as saying: “I pray that all of this will clarify for people that we don’t look to a national leader, we don’t look to those who have the most money or the most weapons. We look to Christ.”

The bishop has been a staunch supporter of MrTrump “through thick and thin”, it reported. In 2024, he delivered the keynote speech at CPAC where the president was the guest of honour. In 2020, he addressed a march of Trump supporters calling to overturn the election results.

“I do not believe this conflict meets the criteria of a just war. I stand with the Holy Father and his call for peace. This is not about politics. It’s about moral truth,” Bishop Strickland told the BBC, saying the scale of death and suffering faced by innocent civilians meant the war could never be viewed as “just”.

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