On Sunday night, President Donald Trump ignited a firestorm when he posted an image on Truth Social depicting himself as a divine figure, leaning over a sick man and appearing to heal him. The image, which drew swift backlash, was widely reported as the president blasphemously “portraying himself as Jesus Christ.”
My immediate reaction was dismay. Initially, I assumed the post was a combination of Trump’s ego and the bad influence of spiritual advisers like Paula White, who likes to compare Trump to Christ, something that I’ve repeatedly criticized. Many of my fellow Christians agreed, and in an apparent reaction to the backlash, Trump deleted the meme. When asked about it, he responded that he didn’t intend it to be a picture of Jesus, but rather a depiction of himself healing America, noting the Red Cross worker in the picture.
Is that an excuse? No. But it is an explanation, and a plausible one, given what we know of Trump’s general inattention to matters of religion. In response, I wrote, “I do believe that he didn’t think of this as a depiction of Jesus when posting. Still, there has to be more care and discernment here.”
My post provoked a flood of criticism. Some people claimed I was simply lying: that I didn’t really believe Trump’s explanation, that I was just a MAGA sycophant blindly running a defense campaign. Many even accused me of being paid to say it. That’s a strange accusation to level at someone who has spent the better part of a decade publicly critiquing Trump—especially since, as I wrote on X, many of the people angry at me had only in the last few months left the Trump Can Do No Wrong Club.
