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After Donald Trump faced a deluge of criticism for posting an AI-generated photo that appeared to depict him as Jesus Christ, the U.S. president backtracked on Monday, dubiously claimed that the photo actually showed him as a doctor with the Red Cross — a humanitarian group that has been relentlessly attacked amid Trump’s war on Iran.
On Sunday night, Trump posted a tirade against Pope Leo XIV, calling him “WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy.” Leo has been outspoken against Trump’s war on Iran and on Friday said that “God does not bless any conflict.”
Shortly after posting his tirade, Trump posted a seemingly AI-generated photo that showed him dressed in Jesus’s robes with light shining out of his hands as he touches the forehead of a man in a hospital bed, apparently healing the man with a touch. A burst of light is depicted in the sky behind Trump, as heavenly AI-mangled figures — some of them appearing to be soldiers — hover above him.
Trump immediately faced pushback against the photo and his criticisms of the pope, and on Monday, the post was deleted.
Still, Trump backtracked in remarks to the press, claiming that it didn’t show him as Jesus, but as a Red Cross doctor.
“I did post it, and I thought it was me as a doctor, and had to do with the Red Cross, Red Cross worker, which we support,” he said. “Only the fake news could come up with that one.”
Red Cross workers are not known for healing people with just a touch, unlike Jesus, nor are they attired in white robes and a cloth. Trump has frequently lied in relation to his Truth Social posts, and generated criticism in February when he posted a blatantly racist video depicting Barack and Michelle Obama as apes.
Notably, even as Trump depicts himself as a savior in the form of a Red Cross doctor, the U.S. and Israel have bombed numerous Red Cross sites and workers in attacks on Iran in the past six weeks — a fact that the Trump administration has scarcely acknowledged.
According to the Iranian Red Crescent Society (IRCS), Iran’s Red Cross chapter, at least four of its workers had been killed in the war, and 15 injured. Meanwhile, strikes have damaged at least 334 health and emergency centers, including 18 IRCS facilities, as the U.S. and Israel target schools, hospitals, and other civilian infrastructure.
The latest killing was of IRCS volunteer Abolfazl Dahanavi, who was just 20 years old, and had been working for the society for four years, the group said. The Red Crescent rescuer was killed by an airstrike while carrying out humanitarian services in Isfahan province.
“This is unjustifiable. We have mourned before. We have called for protection before,” said the IRCS. “We are calling again with greater urgency and outrage: the killing of humanitarian personnel must stop.”
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