President Trump’s bizarre Truth Social repost with a painting implying he was a miraculous healer like Jesus made all the front pages on Tuesday with “allegations of blasphemy”: The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post. Why? Because they deeply hope offended Catholics and Christians will punish Trump and Republicans in the midterm elections.
On Monday, ABC and CBS led their evening newscasts with it, and NBC made it story #2. CBS Mornings opened the show in part with Jon Stewart joking about how he looked like the man Trump was miraculously healing.
Former Evening News anchor Norah O'Donnell had spoken with the president on the phone, and he was unhappy with her loaded CBS report on three American Catholic leaders trashing Trump and "lawless" ICE. She reported it in the evening, and then again on the morning show:
Tuesday's 'CBS Mornings' speculated that Catholic voters will abandon President Trump and the GOP in the midterm election over the last 48 hours with his criticisms of Pope Leo and his Jesus-like AI-image pic.twitter.com/QRRs6NJSBk
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) April 14, 2026
O'DONNELL: He said he was watching 60 Minutes on Sunday night, and that's why he issued the Truth Social post and put up the picture where he depicted himself as a Christ-like figure he has taken down, but not apologized for it. You know, when I talked to Trump, he was doubling down on his criticism of Pope Leo. I said would you call him? He said a firm no. I said do you think he will ever come to the United States? Because he was born in Chicago. He said that's up to him. They're still at a stand-still. This is a diplomatic firestorm.
This is a feud which the elitist media are enjoying immensely, and Trump never shrinks from a feud with anybody. Journalists know this, and they hope it costs the Republicans in the fall. The discussion continued:
GAYLE KING: We have never seen anything like it.
O’DONNELL: Never seen anything like it.
KING: To see a pope and a president at odds.
That's not true. In recent history, popes have been at odds with Clinton and Obama on social issues, and at odds with George W. Bush on wars. What's new is a president insulting the pontiff as a bad leftist politician (and that Jesus-like painting post).
KING: It's interesting -- J.D. Vance said you know, it was a joke. So there again, there’s another interpretation.
O'DONNELL: I wanna just say...The Vice President is Catholic. The Secretary of State is Catholic. Six of the nine Supreme Court justices are Catholic. Thirty percent of Congress is Catholic. This is a huge voting block of people, and the question I think is what's going to happen now in the midterms? Becausea lot of Catholics were offended and Christians were offended by that image.
This hot take is a little over-extended, since some of these Catholics in government are die-hard leftist Democrats who defy many church teachings, from Justice Sonia Sotomayor to Nancy Pelosi. Swing voters could be another issue, but some of these Catholics are die-hard Democrats.
