While it was entertaining to poke fun at Donald Trump comparing himself to Elvis Presley, he has taken it too far. “I’d like to be Pope,” the President stated before posting a sacrilegious AI image of him dressed in papal vestments. This sparked outrage in the Catholic religion as the recent death of Pope Francis caused the whole globe to mourn the loss of someone who truly represented the Catholic faith. 

President Trump’s comments and posts have upset individuals and even leaders all across the globe. The Italian Prime Minister, Matteo Renzi, took to X to share his thoughts on the topic. “This is an image that offends believers, insults institutions and shows that the leader of the right-wing world enjoys clowning around.” The White House, however, disagrees with this conclusion that the Prime Minister boldly claimed. 

“President Trump flew to Italy to pay his respects to Pope Francis and attend his funeral, and he has been a staunch champion for Catholics and religious liberty,” said press secretary Karoline Leavitt.

To that bold claim, the members attending The New York State Catholic Conference wrote a statement of their own, “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.” 

So, what is truly considered sacrilegious? According to the Bible, sac religion is any act that desecrates sacred objects, disrespectful behavior in a holy place, profaning sacred rituals, theft from a sacred place, and blasphemy. In my opinion, the President’s actions fall under a number of these descriptions. For example, depicting yourself as the Pope in an AI image should be considered blasphemy and desecrating sacred objects (the papal vestments). 

The death of the Pope and the process to find his successor is a solemn and difficult time for members of the Catholic faith, and the President of the United States making jokes and poking fun at the religion is very disrespectful. Unfortunately, there are members of Make America Great Again that will always hang onto his every word no matter what disgusting images or comments he posts. 

This controversy also comes at a more controversial time for the President as he is in hot water for accepting a 400 million dollar gift from Qatar. So, we truly have to ask ourselves, “how far will we let him go?” We, the citizens of America, have the power to check the president, so how long are we going to wait and how far are we going to let him go before it is time for action?