Northwest Christians react after Trump attacks Pope Leo and posts image appearing to show himself as Jesus
President Donald Trump drew criticism from Christians in the Northwest and across the country Monday after he posted an image that appeared to depict himself as Jesus Christ and attacked Pope Leo XIV, apparently in response to the leader of the world's Catholics holding a prayer vigil for peace amid war in the Middle East.
The image, seemingly created with artificial intelligence in the style of common religious imagery of Jesus, shows Trump in a white robe and red shawl with light radiating from his hands as he touches the head of a man in a hospital bed, while bald eagles and fighter jets fly overhead. Trump deleted the image Monday after posting it on his Truth Social platform a day earlier, when he also lashed out at the pontiff in a lengthy diatribe.
"Pope Leo is WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy," Trump wrote on Sunday, adding that "I don't want a Pope who criticizes the President of the United States because I'm doing exactly what I was elected, IN A LANDSLIDE, to do."
Speaking to reporters during a flight to Algeria on Monday, Leo continued to voice opposition to the U.S.-Israel war with Iran and its proxies in the region, which continued Monday with Israeli strikes on Lebanon despite a fragile ceasefire between the United States and Iran.
"I have no fear, neither of the Trump administration nor of speaking out loudly about the message of the Gospel," the pope said. "We're not looking to make foreign policy, as he calls it, with the same perspective that he might understand it. But I do believe that the message of the Gospel, 'Blessed are the peacemakers,' is a message that the world needs to hear today."
The Rev. Patrick Conroy, a Jesuit priest who returned to Gonzaga University after serving as chaplain of the U.S. House of Representatives through 2020, said in an email Monday that Trump "launched an immoral war" according to the just war theory developed by Saint Augustine and said, "Pope Leo knows what he is talking about."
"Threatening to destroy a civilization is threatening a war crime," Conroy said, referring to Trump posting on April 7 that if the Iranian government didn't agree to his demands, "A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again."
Conroy, who now serves the Jesuit parish in Missoula, Montana, went point by point to rebut Trump's allegations against Leo, including the claims that the pope wants Iran to have a nuclear weapon and wants Venezuela to send drugs into the United States.
"Does Trump want a Pope who thinks it is OK for the President of the U.S. to lie, openly, about any of these things?" Conroy wrote. "Does Trump want a Pope who would not condemn immoral actions committed by any national leader in our world?"
Jesuit Bryan Pham, who is the chaplain to Gonzaga Law School, criticized Trump and said the post is inappropriate.
"As a Catholic, I find the post to be very offensive," Pham said. "Jesus didn't preach war, he preached peace."
Pham said the picture is Trump's way of responding to the Pope, but the Pope didn't do anything wrong.
"A pastor is supposed to proclaim peace. That's what the pope did. And I think what the pope said was appropriate. What the president posted was impulsive and petty," Pham said. "As a president, Trump has the freedom to express his opinion, and he can disagree with the pope, but the way he did it points to a level of impulsivity that isn't appropriate."
Pham compared the post to something he would expect from folks younger than the president.
"Kids behave reactively, they post things reactively. You expect that level of immaturity among adolescents, not the president," Pham said.
While Trump's attacks on the pope angered many Catholics, his decision to post the Christ-like depiction of himself also drew swift backlash from Christians of various denominations. The reaction apparently prompted the president to do something he seldom does: back down, albeit without an apology.
After deleting the image, Trump told reporters at the White House on Monday that the religious symbolism was lost on him and blamed "the fake news" for making the connection to images of Jesus.
"It's supposed to be me as a doctor, making people better, and I do make people better," Trump said. "I make people a lot better."
Catherine Punsalan-Manlimos, a vice president at Seattle University who leads the Catholic school's Jesuit mission, said Trump's explanation doesn't pass the smell test.
"I don't know how you would see it any other way," she said. "We see this president deny things that he's on video saying, so that's not surprising."
Punsalan-Manlimos said politicians attacking the Catholic Church when its teachings clash with their political goals is nothing new. She grew up in the Philippines, a majority-Catholic country where former President Rodrigo Duterte famously called the late Pope Francis a "son of a whore" and said bishops who criticized his policies should be killed. She said she hopes Christians and people of all religions will "anchor themselves in their faith" and think about what it asks them to do in this moment.
The Trump-as-Christ image echoed remarks made at an Easter lunch on April 1 by Paula White-Cain, Trump's spiritual adviser and the head of the White House Faith Office. Comparing Trump to Jesus, White-Cain told him, "Mr. President, no one has paid the price like you have paid the price."
"You were betrayed and arrested and falsely accused," White-Cain said. "Because he was victorious, you were victorious, and I believe that the Lord said to tell you this: Because of his victory, you will be victorious in all you put your hand to. Because God is with you and God is using you to defeat evil, to restore families, to awaken the church, to harvest the nations, and to bring a worldwide revival."
Gonzaga University sophomore Natalie Geppert, who is Catholic, said her religion class has been discussing the administration's painting of Trump as a godly figure. Besides his spiritual adviser's comments comparing him to Christ, they've also discussed Trump's post of another seemingly AI-generated image of himself dressed in papal garments shortly after Pope Francis' death last year.
Gepperts' eyes widened when she saw the new photo Monday while doing homework on the Jesuit university's campus.
"As a Catholic, it's really disrespectful for anybody to be calling themselves Jesus or some religious figure like that," she said.
Geppert said the comparison was inappropriate, even sacrilegious, and believes Trump's heightened immigration enforcement and starting a war with Iran are contradictory to Jesus' teachings.
"It's just like, in that picture, especially ... having the military there and, what he's doing right now, I think it's very inaccurate," Geppert said. "You can't call yourself a religious figure, especially a Catholic one ... I don't see him doing anything that Jesus did."
Nonreligious students were also put off by the image, troubled by the implications of church and state crossover.
"We're so cooked," groaned GU junior Caleb McCullough, who isn't religious and leans to the right politically.
Gonzaga grad PJ Woodland, who isn't religious, said it's in line with Trump's views of himself "as a deity." It's more of the same rhetoric to come from the administration to use Christian symbols to build support from that base, he said.
"I don't think he has any respect for religion or its actual importance to people because he has no experience of struggle that he would need religion for," Woodland said.
Some local church leaders said it wasn't appropriate for them to make public statements about the post.
According to Mount Spokane stake president Robert Sanders, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints church does not typically dive into politics at all.
"We have a big church, we're a worldwide church. We have more members outside of the U.S. than we have in the U.S.," Sanders said. "We encourage everyone to vote and participate, but as a church, our mission is to show love and bring people to Jesus Christ, and that has nothing to do with politics."
Elena Perry and Orion Donovan Smith's work is funded in part by members of the Spokane community via the Community Journalism and Civic Engagement Fund. This story can be republished by other organizations for free under a Creative Commons license. For more information on this, please contact our newspaper's managing editor.
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This story was originally published April 14, 2026 at 7:14 PM.