Amid tensions with Pope Leo, Donald Trump posted an AI image of himself seemingly depicted as Jesus. Since deleted, the image served only to inflame the controversy between him and the anointed head of the Catholic Church.
After posting an image of himself in flowing robes with a Christ-like pose, many were outraged at Trump depicting himself as Jesus. But the president insisted he’d been misunderstood.
“I did post it, [but] I thought it was me as a doctor,” Trump told reporters. “[It was] supposed to be me as a doctor, making people better.”
President Trump is throwing gas “on what should be a dying fire”
Trump’s justification for posting the image in the first place didn’t help. His explanation only fanned the flames of public outrage.
Instead of dialing back controversy, the explanation only increased public focus. The original post, coming so close to Easter, was viewed by even some of Trump’s supporters as sacrilegious. His ongoing feud with the first American pope only made it worse.
Communications expert Evan Siegfried sees a pattern in Trump’s behavior. “What we’re seeing isn’t an isolated gaffe,” he said, as reported by OK Magazine. “It’s a pattern, and when a pattern emerges over eight days, the pattern itself becomes the story.”
“It started on Easter Sunday and culminated a week later with an attack on Pope Leo,” he continued. “Every new development throws gas on what should be a dying fire. What should have been embers by now is now a roaring bonfire. This is a self-own of the worst magnitude.”
Typically, a clarification is used to restore control of the narrative. But Trump’s explanation did the opposite. Per Evan, by offering an explanation that many found found ridiculous, it encouraged analysis, parody and skepticism.
Furthermore, Trump’s decision to delete the image suggested that he knew he’d made a mistake. But it was too late. By then the conversation had moved on from the image to his implausible explanation of it.
TELL US – DO YOU THINK THE MEME LOOKS LIKE A “DOCTOR?” WAS IT SACRELIGIOUS?
