President Trump on Monday pushed back against criticism of an AI-generated photo depicting him as the pope that was shared on his Truth Social account and reshared by the White House.
What they’re saying: “I had nothing to do with it,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “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, I have no idea where it came from. Maybe it was AI, but I know nothing about it, I just saw it last evening.”
- A reporter told Trump some Catholics were unhappy about the post.
- “You mean they can’t take a joke,” Trump said. “You don’t mean the Catholics, you mean the fake news media. The Catholics loved it.”
- He said first lady Melania Trump, who is Catholic, “thought it was cute.”
Reality check: Among the leading Catholics to express offense at the Friday night AI post were the New York State Catholic Conference, which represents N.Y. bishops, a leading U.S. cardinal and a former prime minister of Italy.
Go deeper: Vance defends Trump’s post depicting himself as pope amid criticism
