Religious support for *rump

[rustbeltvoice]

Last night Deranged Donnie issued two disturbing posts on his vanity twitter. One was an attack on Pope Leo XIV, in which as he typically does, he thoroughly misrepresents [LIES] about his victim of abuse. The next one was a computer generated image where he has replaced Jesus in performing a miracle.

Will such items cause his religious supporters to fall away from continued support? I would say, not by much. Many of those supporters hate Catholicism with an absolute maniacal vengeance, and in their churches they have raised up Demented Donnie to a godlike figure already.

Now what about "Catholic" trumpsters? Their easy out is simple, we only have to follow the pope in severely limited instances, when he is speaking on faith and morals, or when he speaking "ex cathdedra" [which has happened only twice]. Of course Leo is speaking out against war, but to these people that does not qualify as speaking on faith and morals. Leo is echoing Jesus in the New Testament, but that is immaterial. Some of them will equate such an opinion with all the accusations leveled by those that hate the papacy a priori. Leo is being like Pius XII with nazism, or with popes who encouraged the Crusades. Strange bedfellows in shared hate and calumny, but whatever it takes. Some of these trumpsters are just as racist as Donnie, or like his mercenary capitalism, but others are monomaniacal anti-abortionists. Every repuke gets an absolute pass because those partei members mouth the mandatory shibboleths. The light of reason will not shine on them. The first rule of Catholic ethics is: the ends never justify the means. They do not believe that, and so in the most vigorous manner.

[Walleye]

1. I agree that the ends never justify the means. It is a matter of ethics.

[Scrivener7]

2. You're right about conservative Catholics. But still, it's nice to see the Pope actually spreading

ethical arguments to oppose acts that are clearly immoral.

[dem4decades]

3. The Pope leads 2.6 billion Catholics world wide, I'm pretty sure most of them dislike Trump.

The 61 million Catholics that live in the US are a small part of his flock, and those that support Trump over the teachings in the Bible, an even smaller group. I'm not a fan of religion but this pope is alright by me.

[JI7]

4. Just becsuse someone is religious doesn't mean they are good. Someone like Jimmy Carter

was the total opposite of people like Falwell and all those other religious people.

The fact many of them supported Trump shows this.

[a kennedy]

5. Looking forward to what my family thinks about this......

tRump lovers en all. Yup, gonna be very interesting.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

6. MaddowBlog-After picking an ugly fight with pope, Trump promotes image panned as 'blasphemy'

The president’s offensive against the pope, followed by the image presenting himself as some kind of American Jesus, represented quite the one-two punch.

I get that many will find Trump’s offensive against the pope as predictable — this is just what he does — but compare how he lashed out at Pope Francis in 2016 to how he targeted Pope Leo XIV yesterday.

And then add in the mind-numbing American Jesus image.
www.ms.now/rachel-maddo...

— Steve Benen (@stevebenen.com) 2026-04-13T12:03:12.331Z

https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/after-picking-an-ugly-fight-with-pope-trump-promotes-image-panned-as-blasphemous

A decade later, as president, the Republican decided to go even further in an offensive against Francis’ successor, Pope Leo XIV.

In a 330-word tirade published on Sunday night to his social media platform, Trump wrote, among other things:

Pope Leo is WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy. … I like his brother Louis much better than I like him, because Louis is all MAGA. He gets it, and Leo doesn’t! … Leo should get his act together as Pope, use Common Sense, stop catering to the Radical Left, and focus on being a Great Pope, not a Politician. It’s hurting him very badly and, more importantly, it’s hurting the Catholic Church!

.....Soon after, during a brief Q&A with reporters, Trump was asked why he “attacked” the pope. Instead of challenging the premise, the Republican replied, “I don’t think he’s doing a very good job. He likes crime, I guess. … I am not a fan of Pope Leo.”

Reporter: Why did you attack Pope Leo?

Trump: I don’t think he’s doing a very good job. He likes crime I guess. We don’t like a pope who says it’s ok to have a nuclear weapon. We don’t want a pope that says crime is ok. I am not a fan of Pope Leo.

— Acyn (@acyn.bsky.social) 2026-04-13T01:33:12.402Z

.....To be sure, none of this was too surprising. Leo, for example, recently chastised those who invoke God as supportive of military might, saying in a homily on Palm Sunday, “Brothers and sisters, this is our God: Jesus, King of Peace, who rejects war, whom no one can use to justify war. He does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them.”...

The question was less about whether Team Trump, which has spent months clashing with the faith community, would go after the Catholic leader, and more about how. We now have an answer.

On Monday morning, aboard the papal plane en route to Algeria, the church’s first-ever American pope told The Associated Press, “I have no fear of the Trump administration.”....

For good measure, this back-and-forth was not the Republican’s only message related to religion.

And Trump posted an image of himself as some sort of American Jesus healing people.

— Brian Kaylor (@briankaylor.bsky.social) 2026-04-13T02:02:10.235Z

On Sunday night, Trump apparently thought it would also be a good idea to promote an image that appeared to present him as some kind of American Jesus.

“There is behavior that’s so self-evidently deranged that merely seeing it should lead to fury and disgust,” The New York Times’ David French wrote in response. “I’m concerned, however, that some evangelicals are so influenced by Trump that they won’t unite with their Catholic brothers and sisters in response to Trump’s blasphemy and intolerable attacks on the pope, but will instead turn against them.”

trump is truly crazy.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

7. It appears as if Trump has deleted his post portraying himself as Jesus after facing some backlash

Link to tweet

[LetMyPeopleVote]

8. trump's followers on Truth Social are calling him the Antichrist after his post of an image depicting himself as Jesus

trump's followers are pissed and trump was forced to take down his post

Link to tweet

[republianmushroom]

9. The self proclaimed MAGArat Jesus did some trolling last nigh

lets see if he can handle what he caught.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

10. 'Thou shalt always TACO': Trump ridiculed as he succumbs to 'blasphemy' rage

No one is surprised that trump took down the image depicting him as a Jesus Christ-like figure

After facing a wave of backlash from critics and supporters alike, President Donald Trump appeared to have deleted a social media post that featured an image depicting him as a Jesus Christ-like figure — prompting ridicule from onlookers.

— Raw Story (@rawstory.com) 2026-04-13T16:15:10Z

https://www.rawstory.com/trump-jesus-2676706680/

After facing a wave of backlash from critics and supporters alike, President Donald Trump appeared to have deleted a social media post that featured an image depicting him as a Jesus Christ-like figure — prompting ridicule from onlookers.

“Thou shalt always TACO… Trump 3:16,” quipped Tommy Christopher, writer and editor for Mediaite and former White House reporter, in a social media post on X to his more than 25,000 followers.....

Later on Monday morning, however, Trump – or his staffers – appeared to have deleted the social media post, prompting some to take further digs at the president, including California Gov. Gavin Newsom.

“Now delete your presidency,” Newsom wrote in a social media post on X to his nearly 3 million followers.

Link to tweet