President Trump shared an AI-generated photo of himself dressed as the pope just days after telling reporters that he’d “like to be pope.”
The image – which Mr. Trump first posted on his social media platform Truth Social – was also shared by the White House’s official social media account on Friday. It comes as cardinals from around the world are set to gather in Vatican City to choose Pope Francis‘ successor as the leader of the Catholic Church.
The image shows Mr. Trump seated in an ornate chair, dressed in white papal vestments and headdress, with a finger raised.
Mr. Trump, who is not Catholic, joked to reporters outside the White House on Tuesday that he would like to succeed Francis, who died at 88 last month.
“I’d like to be pope. That would be my No. 1 choice,” he said.
The president noted that he actually had no preference, adding, “I must say, 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.”
Mr. Trump was referring to Timothy Cardinal Dolan, archbishop of New York. While there has never been a pope from the U.S., Francis was the first from the Americas.
Francis died of a stroke that ultimately led to irreversible heart failure, according to a death certificate issued by the Vatican.
Mr. Trump and first lady Melania Trump were among the dignitaries who attended Francis’ funeral last week. While there, Mr. Trump met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Days later, Ukrainian and U.S. officials signed a joint economic investment deal on Wednesday that includes granting the U.S. access to Ukrainian rare earth minerals.
Dan Kitwood / Getty Images 
Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni, according to Reuters, declined to comment on the image shared by Mr. Trump during a briefing with journalists about the process of electing a new pope, which begins on May 7. Some 133 cardinals will choose the next pope, with no clear frontrunner in sight.
The AI-generated image sparked backlash from some on social media, while others defended it as a joke.
Former Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele, an outspoken critic of the president, criticized the post and said it “affirms how unserious and incapable [Mr. Trump] is.”
The New York State Catholic Conference accused Trump of mockery.
“There is nothing clever or funny about this image, Mr. President. We just buried our beloved Pope Francis and the cardinals are about to enter a solemn conclave to elect a new successor of St. Peter. Do not mock us,” they wrote on X.
Debbie Macchia, 60, a supporter of the president outside his golf club in West Palm Beach, Florida on Saturday morning, told Reuters he was “clearly joking.”
“But I wouldn’t want to see them do anything sacrilegious with the pope, or anything,” she said.
CBS News has reached out to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops for comment.
This is not the first time Mr. Trump or the White House has shared an AI-generated photo of the president.
In mid-February, their official social media accounts posted a different AI-generated image of Mr. Trump wearing a crown and captioned “CONGESTION PRICING IS DEAD. Manhattan, and all of New York, is SAVED. LONG LIVE THE KING!”
