The president asked Americans to pretend they didnt see what they obviously saw.
I donât know what kind of medical facilities the president has visited, but Iâve met quite a few physicians over the years, and not one of them ever wore a white robe and a red stole while bright lights emanated from their hands.
www.ms.now/rachel-maddo...
— Steve Benen (@stevebenen.com) 2026-04-13T19:21:30.988Z
https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/already-in-a-ditch-trump-digs-deeper-in-defending-image-depicting-himself-as-jesus
Offered an opportunity to apologize, or at least to walk back his rhetorical offensive, the president refused, insisting again that the pope said things that are wrong.
Whether the Republican pays a political price for this odd and unnecessary broadside remains to be seen, but it was his other religio-political controversy that seems to have created an even bigger mess.
And Trump posted an image of himself as some sort of American Jesus healing people.
— Brian Kaylor (@briankaylor.bsky.social) 2026-04-13T02:02:10.235Z
.....The item that he published to his social media platform was removed on Monday morning, but just as notable was the way in which Trump tried to defend the image during a brief Q&A with reporters at the White House.
BREAKING: President Trump says he thought the controversial image he posted on social media that appeared to depict him as Jesus Christ was "supposed to be me as a doctor."
— MS NOW (@ms.now) 2026-04-13T17:03:39.339Z
When a reporter asked,
Did you post that picture of yourself depicted as Jesus Christ? he replied,
Well, it wasnt depiction. It was me. I did post it, and I thought it was me as a doctor and had to do with Red Cross, as a Red Cross worker there, which we support, and only the fake news could come up with that one. So I just heard about it, and I said, How did they come up with that? Its supposed to be me as a doctor, making people better. And I do make people better, make people a lot better.....
The public is apparently supposed to believe Trump saw an image of himself in a white robe and a red stole, with a bright light emanating from his hands, and he concluded that this was an image of him as a doctor.
I dont know what kind of medical facilities the president has visited, but Ive met quite a few physicians over the years and not one of them ever wore a white robe and a red stole while bright lights emanated from their hands.....
Whats more, while Trump complained that
the fake news concocted the idea that he promoted an image depicting himself as divine, the truth is the online item generated significant pushback, not from journalists, but from Christian conservatives, many of whom are generally aligned with the White House.
In other words, it wasnt news organizations, or even his detractors on the left, that pushed back against Trumps apparent sacrilege, it was many of his own allies, who characterized the image as offensive and blasphemous.
Finally, the Republican concluded the image was defensible because he makes people a lot better. His administrations record on health care policy tells a very different story.