VATICAN CITY — In an escalation of the public feud between the U.S. president and the supreme pontiff of the Catholic Church, Pope Leo XIV shared an AI-generated photo of himself dressed as Donald Trump.
After President Trump shared a controversial AI-generated image of himself with overt religious imagery on the heels of bashing the pope, the pontiff retaliated by releasing his own image depicting himself with a distinctly Trump-like appearance and sitting in the Oval Office. Critics immediately bashed the image as being blasphemous.
"This image is highly offensive," one social media user said. "For the pope to blatantly portray himself as President Trump is truly beyond what is acceptable. I'm shocked that the pope would do such a thing. Outrageous."
The image only served to intensify what had already become a heated situation between the two prominent figures, with Trump vowing to retaliate. "My followers will not stand for this disrespect," Trump told reporters. "It's one of my commandments. There shall be no other Trumps before me. Everyone knows this. The pope is out of line here, and there will be consequences. We're already having discussions about regime change in Vatican City, believe me."
At publishing time, Pope Leo XIV had also posted a photo of himself as a hobbit from The Lord of the Rings, prompting an aide to remove the ChatGPT app from the pontiff's phone.
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