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Over the weekend, Donald Trump’s portrayal of himself as Jesus earned a lot of reprisal from his own fans.
Trump officials offered various explanations and excuses. The man himself called it a mistake, claiming that he’d believed that the AI slop was depicting him as a “doctor” of the “Red Cross.”
But he has now posted a second image of a very similar nature.
Will this deepen the divide? Or will he keep slopping until his remaining supporters stop complaining?
He’s at it again
On Wednesday, April 15, Donald Trump shared another image — this time a screenshot of a tweet — to his Orwellian “Truth Social” social media page.
“The Radical Left Lunatics might not like this, but I think it is quite nice!!!” he captioned the screenshot.
(One has to wonder if this means that he has decided to brand conservative evangelicals who condemned the previous image as “radical left lunatics,” as well.)
The AI generated slop depicts the man himself in front of a microphone, with Jesus draping over him.
Some have suggested that this image is even worse, as the pose seems very … intimate.
Though the genAI slop is the focus of the post, we cannot discount the deeply unwell text of the original tweet.
“I was never a very religious man,” the unidentified original poster wrote.
The poster continued: “But doesn’t it seem with all these satanic, demonic, child sacrificing monster being exposed … that God might be playing his Trump card!”
This message appears to be leaning into QAnon conspiracy theories, which pretend that famous actors and TV news anchors and musicians are part of a demonic cult that sacrifices children.
Reality is full of twisted, evil individuals — but it is also banal. When the wealthy and powerful prey upon children, it doesn’t involve demons — just power, money, and the evil in the hearts of men like Jeffrey Epstein and his buddies.
Didn’t he just get massive blowback for a similar image?
Trump’s post comes just days after his last one, a similarly brazen piece of genAI slop.
That image depicted the man as Jesus, performing a miraculous act of healing upon a sick man.
(Some suggested that the sick man resembled Trump’s longtime friend, Epstein. Others compared the man’s looks to comedian Jon Stewart.)
Likening oneself to one’s own religion’s holiest figure is considered blasphemous in many faiths — including Christianity.
Trump’s core supporters include many who dislike his behavior and policies, but who support him in the name of things like white nationalism and Christian nationalism. Folks believing that the rest is somehow worth it if their beliefs become law were really struggling with such a sacrilegious display.
As you can see, Trump — as always — cannot abide any criticism, even from fellow conservatives, even from his most ardent supporters.
He lashed out at transphobic grifter Riley Gaines, at former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, and at disgraced conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.
Speaking with CBS News on Monday, April 13, Trump claimed that he’d believed that the slop image depicted him, not as Christianity’s messiah figure, but as “a doctor.”
Absurdly, he insisted: “I viewed that as a picture of me being a doctor in fixing — you had the Red Cross right there, you had, you know, medical people surrounding me.”
There is speculation that Trump, given his obvious cognitive decline, misunderstood a plan to claim that the image had been “doctored,” after his press secretary used that word.
Why is he doubling down?
Trump seemed shocked by the outcry that his initial post elicited from conservative Christians who previously supported him.
Meanwhile, other members of his regime have conjured up various excuses — such as Vance claiming that it was a “joke” that people misinterpreted.
Meanwhile, Speaker Mike Johnson admitted that he did ask Trump to delete the post.
Even conservative commentators have marveled at how Trump deleted that image, but left the racist depiction of the Obamas up. We probably all understand why Trump cares more about white evangelicals than he does about Black constituents, right?
Only, he’s doubling down on the AI Jesus stuff. Is he testing the waters? Or is this kneejerk defiance against any request for decency, which is the same attitude that defines his political movement?
