Cardinal David on Trump’s AI photo as pope: ‘Not funny, Sir’

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'With all due respect to his office and to the American people, we’d like him to know it’s not funny'

MANILA, Philippines – Filipino Cardinal Pablo Virgilio David criticized US President Donald Trump for posting an AI-generated photo of him dressed like a Catholic pope.

“Not funny, Sir,” said David, a polyglot, translating the same message into 10 different languages in a Facebook post on Saturday, May 3.

“The following AI-generated photo was posted by the US president himself, a few days after he attended the funeral of Pope Francis and while the Catholic world is still mourning. With all due respect to his office and to the American people, we’d like him to know it’s not funny,” said David, president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines.

David, the 66-year-old bishop of the Diocese of Kalookan, is currently in Rome to attend the conclave that begins on Wednesday, May 7. He is one of three Filipino cardinals eligible to join the conclave, the secretive papal election that will involve 133 cardinals this year.

Trump posted his controversial photo days after he joked he would “like to be pope.”

Trump, who is not a Catholic and does not attend church regularly, posted the image on his Truth Social platform late on Friday, May 2, less than a week after attending the funeral of Francis, who died at 88 last month. The White House then reposted it on its official X account.

The image shows an unsmiling Trump seated in an ornate chair, dressed in white papal vestments and headdress, with right forefinger raised.

Like David, the Catholic bishops of New York state expressed their displeasure on X.

“There is nothing clever or funny about this image, Mr. President,” they wrote. “We just buried our beloved Pope Francis and the cardinals are about to enter a solemn conclave to elect a new Successor of Saint Peter. Do not mock us.”

Trump on April 29, had jokingly said he would be his own first choice to become pope, before adding that there was a “very good” candidate in New York, Cardinal Timothy Dolan. – with reports from Reuters/Rappler.com