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President Trump said Monday that “it had nothing to do with” a representation of Himel as the Pope who was shared in his social media and the White House accounts over the weekend, distancing himself from the image generated by the teams that have agitated Catholics.
“It had nothing to do with that,” Trump said as he took questions at the Oval office. “Someone took a picture of me dressed as the Pope, and they took it on the Internet. That is not me for that, I have no idea where it came, maybe it went to, but I have no idea where it comes from.”
Mr. Trump, answering a question about Catholics who are disputed with the image of him dressed in white papal robes and a ceremonial headdress, also tried to minimize the criticized criticized.
“They can’t take a joke,” Trump said, quickly tells the journalist, “you don’t mean Catholics; you mean false media. Catholics loved it.”
But Catholics throughout the country, including a prominent American cardinal, have suggested that the image is offensive, especially while crying the death of Pope Francis. Cardinal Timothy M. Dollan in New York, in Rome for the papal conclave, said when asked about the image of Sunday that he expected he was not the president.
“I hope it hasn’t had anything to do with that,” said Cardinal Dolan. When asked if he was offended by him, the cardinal decreased but called the image a “brutta figure”, which means that he had caused a bad impression.
While the president insisted that he did not know about the image of himself as Pope, he was published by the White House in X and by his own social account of the truth, which he has shared several images generated by the teams.
Asked by the journalists last week that I wanted to be Pope, Trump first made the joke that he was his own option “No. 1”. Then he referred to Cardinal Dolan as a “very good” option. (Mr. Dolan is not a probable candidate).
Trump is not Catholic, but his wife, Melania Trump, is Roman Catholic. Mrs. Trump apparently liked the image of her husband in papal clothing.
“Actually, my wife thought it was pretty,” Mr. Trump insisted on Monday at the Oval office. “She said:” Isn’t it so pleasant? “
Some Catholic leaders in the United States had said that the image could be interpreted as a mockery of their faith. “It is never appropriate to ridicule or make fun of the papacy,” said Dennis Poust, executive director of the Catholic Conference of the State of New York, the public policy arm of the Catholic bishops of the State, to the New York Times.
Trump cut the votes of the duration of Catholics of the Nation, and duration of their campaigns, and the duration of the 2024 race, he chose a vice president who converted to Catholicism as an adult. Vice President JD Vance has been opened on how his faith informs his policy.
“I am fine with people’s account jokes,” Mr. Vance published on social networks in response to a question about the image.
