AMERICAN CARDINAL TIMOTHY Dolan said that US President Donald Trump posting an AI-generated image of himself as the pope “wasn’t good”.

“I hope he didn’t have anything to do with that,” the New York cardinal told reporters.

Yesterday, Trump posted the image of himself donning pope regalia, including a gold cross hanging from around his neck and a tall papal hat, on his social media platform Truth Social. The image was unaccompanied by a caption or explanation.

Later, the image was shared to the White House’s official X account, also without a caption.

Responding to general questions before Mass at his titular church this morning in Rome, Cardinal Dolan spoke about President Trump‘s post on social media dressed as a pope. @thegnewsroom pic.twitter.com/sF1zshVTP3

— Mary Shovlain (@maryshovlain) May 4, 2025

A large amount of people have spoken out to condemn the image as “disrespectful”, with groups such as Republicans Against Trump, the New York State Catholic Conference, as well as Catholics across American and the rest of the world taking to social media to point out that they found it was in poor taste.

Trump has often utilised AI on his social media. In March, he posted an AI-generated video of ‘Trump Gaza’ to his Truth Social page. The video depicted the war-torn Gaza Strip as a resort location similar to Dubai, and showed Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu drinking cocktails on sun loungers. 

The creator of the video, who is said to have made it independently, said that it was a piece of political satire – although Trump did not provide any details when he posted it to his own platform. 

Pope Francis died on 21 April at the age of 88. When Trump was asked who he would like to see succeed the late pontiff, he joked, “I’d like to be pope. That would be my number one choice… No, I don’t know, I have no preference.”

He then said in a reference to New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan: “We have a Cardinal that happens to be out of a place called New York who’s very good, so we’ll see what happens.” 

I was excited to hear that President Trump is open to the idea of being the next Pope. This would truly be a dark horse candidate, but I would ask the papal conclave and Catholic faithful to keep an open mind about this possibility!

The first Pope-U.S. President combination has… pic.twitter.com/MM9vE5Uvzb

— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) April 29, 2025

US Senator Lindsay Graham urged people to “keep an open mind about this possibility” that Trump may take on the role of the pontiff – although it is not a possibility, as Trump is not a baptised Catholic.

National Catholic Register also jokingly claimed that Trump would be ineligible because any candidate, according to Canon Law, “must be of sound mind”.

The conclave to elect the new pope will begin on 7 May.