President Donald Trump’s Truth Social meme of himself supposedly as Jesus Christ continues to provoke criticism from his former top supporters, even as evangelist Franklin Graham says he sees nothing wrong with a man who makes war presenting himself as the Prince of Peace.
Indeed, Graham isn’t so sure that Trump did present himself as Christ.
That said, former GOP Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene accused Trump of blasphemy over Graham’s reaction, and podcaster Tucker Carlson, quoting Scripture, said the image suggests that Trump might be the Antichrist.
Graham: No Worries. He Didn’t Mean Anything by It.
On April 12, Trump posted a meme that first showed up online in February, a creation of a Trump cultist. It allegedly shows Trump as Jesus Christ.
“I did post it, and I thought it was me as a doctor,” Trump told a press gaggle as he took delivery from McDonald’s. He noted that “only the fake news could come up with that one,” then added, “It’s supposed to be me as a doctor, making people better. And I do make people better. I make people a lot better.”
A big-time supporter of Trump’s war against Iran who said God “raised up” the president to vanquish the country, Graham wrote on X that he did not “believe President Trump would knowingly depict himself as Jesus Christ.” For that would be “inappropriate.”
Graham accepted at face value Trump’s claim:
I’m thankful the President has made it very clear that this was not at all what he thought the AI-generated image was representing — he thought it was a doctor helping someone, and when he learned of the concerns, he immediately removed the post.
When I looked at the illustration, I didn’t jump to the same conclusion as some. There were no spiritual references — no halo, there were no crosses, no angels. It was a flag, soldiers, a nurse, fighter planes, eagles, the Statue of Liberty, and I think this is a lot to do about nothing. There is so much ill-intended speculation. I think his enemies are always foaming at the mouth at any possible opportunity to make him look bad.
Graham continued at some length.
MTG Responds
Marjorie Taylor Greene answered him by noting the “blasphemous picture” was altered to excise a soldier that was above Trump’s head, and put in the GI’s place was Satan.
“Franklin Graham of all people, who is frequently at the WH and with Trump, should be leading Trump to be a Christian, NOT telling other Christians that Trump did nothing wrong when he committed blasphemy,” she wrote:
Trump knows what he is doing. He knows what he posted. He knows how to manipulate his followers. And he’s not sorry, he never apologized.
Instead he lied, and said he was a doctor, which is also absurd.
Greene also called the meme an “Antichrist spirit,” and on April 12, when it appeared, denounced it and Trump’s attack on Pope Leo for opposing the U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran.
Another top Trump supporter, swimming champ Riley Gaines, wrote that she didn’t understand why Trump would post such a thing, and asked whether he really believed it about himself.
“Either way, two things are true,” she wrote:
1) a little humility would serve him well
2) God shall not be mocked
Trump replied by telling CBS News talker Norah O’Donnell that he doesn’t much care for Gaines.
“I didn’t listen to Riley Gaines,” he said. “I’m not a big fan of Riley, actually.”
Gaines took the calculated insult in stride. “I love the president,” she replied, “and I’m so grateful he’s in the Oval Office.”
Tucker: Tracks With Bible’s Antichrist Prophecies
Like Greene, Carlson noticed the demon above Trump’s head, and warned that Trump seems to be creating a new religion as he mocks Jesus Christ. Trump is a “famously irreligious man,” Carlson said. The president’s crusade against Christ began on Easter when he wrote on Truth Social that he would destroy Iran’s power plants and its civilian infrastructure, Carlson observed.
Trump vowed “war crimes, crimes against civilians, against the population of the country,” Carlson continued, “used the F-word on Easter Sunday,” and ridiculed the world’s two largest religions, Islam and Catholicism. Trump attacked the pope a week later, and claimed that he, Trump, is the reason Leo became the pope.
Speaking about the blasphemous meme, Carlson showed the original image and the altered version that appeared on Truth Social.
“You’ll notice that it’s been changed, and the American soldier over the president’s head, the president as Jesus’s head, has been changed and is now, if you look very carefully, a demon, some kind of winged creature of Hell,” Carlson said:
So, it goes from an image that suggests, you know, healing and light to an image that suggests, I don’t know, a scene from Revelation, John’s vision on the isle of Patmos, the end times, the apocalypse. Who knows? Nothing good. It suggests demonic power because there is a demon in it. So he sent that out and then withdrew it, deleted the tweet from the internet after an outcry.
Trump is “mocking Jesus” and ridiculing the Christian faith, Carlson continued. “The central figure of the religion is being held up for mockery.” Carlson said Trump lied about whether he posted the meme.
Seeing the meme, Carlson said, some Christians undoubtedly repaired to their Bibles to reckon what they were seeing. A lot of them found out by reading 2 Thessalonians, Chapter 2, which foretells “the rise of a figure [Paul] describes as the man of lawlessness,” Carlson said, “sometimes described as the antichrist.” Carlson read some of the passage verbatim. The man of lawlessness “will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshipped so that he sets himself up in God’s temple proclaiming himself to be God.”
Carlson pointed to a similar prophecy in the Book of Daniel.
Trump is “a leader who’s mocking the gods of his ancestors, mocking the God of gods and exalting himself above them,” he said:
Could this be the Antichrist? Well, who knows? At least that’s my conclusion. Who knows?
Trump is reprising the behavior of past leaders who set themselves up as God’s rivals — “the definition of megalomania.”
“This is the leader of our country saying I will take no instruction from God because as he showed in the first meme, I am God, Carlson said:
OK. So that kind of raises the question, is that OK? Seems to be OK. There were no massive protests in front of the White House. There was no attempt really to do anything about this. In fact, many Republican leaders shrugged it off. Self-professed Christians shrugged off. No big deal. You know, he’s just, just Truth Socialing. Don’t pay attention. It’s just a joke.
It’s just a joke. What? You have no sense of humor? Mocking Jesus. Giving the finger to God. You’re so uptight.
GOP leaders, he said, joined Trump’s attack on Pope Leo.
