An AI-generated image reshared by President Donald Trump set off a media frenzy this week, with opponents rushing to claim the commander-in-chief had cast himself in the role of Jesus Christ — a charge both Trump and evangelical leader Reverend Franklin Graham have flatly rejected.
The image at the center of the uproar featured Trump in a white robe accented by a red sash, his hand reaching toward an ailing American. Standing nearby were a nurse and a uniformed military servicemember.
Overhead, an eagle soared alongside fighter aircraft, while the Statue of Liberty and an American flag anchored the patriotic backdrop.
Critics wasted no time drawing a connection to religious iconography, and the backlash spread rapidly across the internet. Trump pulled the post from his account shortly after the criticism escalated.
But the president did not go quietly. Pushing back with characteristic bluntness, Trump laid out exactly what he believed he was looking at when he decided to share the image.
“Well, it wasn’t depiction. It was me. I did post it, and I thought it was me as a doctor, and had to do with Red Cross; there’s a Red Cross worker there, which we support,” Trump told reporters.
He reserved particular scorn for the media outlets driving the story.
“Only the fake news could come up with that one. So I just heard about it, and I said, ‘How do they come up with that?’ It’s supposed to be me as a doctor, making people better,” the president said.
As the debate raged on, Graham stepped forward with a measured but pointed defense, addressing questions that had flooded in from his followers. The evangelical leader, son of the late Reverend Billy Graham, made his position plain from the start.
“I had received some questions about President Donald J. Trump’s recent posts, and here are my thoughts,” Graham began.
He went straight to the heart of the matter, stating he had reached an entirely different conclusion than the critics amplifying the story. “I do not believe President Trump would knowingly depict himself as Jesus Christ — that would certainly be inappropriate. I’m thankful the President has made it very clear that this was not at all what he thought the AI-generated image was representing — he thought it was a doctor helping someone, and when he learned of the concerns, he immediately removed the post,” Graham said.
Graham walked through the image element by element, arguing that nothing in it pointed to a religious message. No halos. No crosses. No scripture. What the image actually contained, he said, told a very different story.
“It was a flag, soldiers, a nurse, fighter planes, eagles, the Statue of Liberty, and I think this is a lot to do about nothing. There is so much ill-intended speculation. I think his enemies are always foaming at the mouth at any possible opportunity to make him look bad,” Graham said.
The reverend also directed attention toward a second image Trump had reshared on Truth Social during the same week — one that showed Jesus standing beside Trump, a hand resting on the president’s shoulder.
“And the illustration from someone else he reposted on Truth Social yesterday, I must say that I like the fact that this is a picture of Jesus whispering in his ear, or at least his hand on his shoulder, guiding him. We all need that — we all need to be listening to Jesus,” Graham said.
Graham reminded his audience of a fact that had been lost in the outrage cycle — Trump did not produce the image himself.
“Again, I think there is an attempt to spin this into something that it isn’t. Remember, President Trump didn’t draw this, he didn’t create it, he reposted it on his social media because he thought it was nice — I would have to agree,” Graham said.
The reverend, an evangelical who noted he is not Catholic, wrapped his statement with praise for Trump’s broader record on faith.
He called Trump “the most pro-Christian, pro-life president in my lifetime” and expressed hope that Trump and Pope Leo XIV would one day sit down together, with the pontiff having the chance to personally acknowledge the administration’s work defending religious freedom worldwide.
Trump himself reposted the Jesus-and-Trump image on Wednesday, appending his own commentary: “The Radical Left Lunatics might not like this, but I think it is quite nice!!! President DJT.”
The meme carried the caption, “I was never a very religious man … but doesn’t it seem, with all these satanic, demonic, child sacrificing [sic] monsters being exposed … that God might be playing his Trump card!”
The entire episode unfolded against the backdrop of a separate and growing tension between Trump and Pope Leo XIV, whom the president publicly branded as “WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy.”
