Administration

Tillis on Trump’s reasoning for posting AI Jesus image: ‘I’ll take it at face value’

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by Sophie Brams - 04/15/26 11:18 PM ET

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by Sophie Brams - 04/15/26 11:18 PM ET

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Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) said on Wednesday that he was willing to take President Trump’s explanation for a controversial post depicting the president as a Jesus-like figure at “face value,” arguing that he was more concerned with Trump’s comments toward Pope Leo XIV.

“I worry less about the post,” Tillis said during an exclusive interview with NBC News when asked whether he thought it could erode Catholics’ support for the president.

“I think he took it down, and I think that’s an acknowledgment that it was probably something that should have never been posted,” he added. “I’ll take at face value his confusion with it being a doctor.”

Trump posted the AI-generated image on Truth Social late Sunday, as he lashed out against the pope over his criticism of the conflict with Iran. It showed Trump in a long robe, his hand placed on the forehead of a sick man as light radiated from his palms, with a nurse, soldier and American iconography surrounding him.

The image drew backlash from Democratic lawmakers, religious leaders and figures within the MAGA movement, including former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and activist Riley Gaines.

“Why? Seriously, I cannot understand why he’d post this. Is he looking for a response?” Gaines wrote Monday on the social platform X. Does he actually think this? Either way, two things are true. 1) a little humility would serve him well 2) God shall not be mocked.”

The president later took down the post, claiming it had been misinterpreted and that he thought the image portrayed him as a doctor. He also denied that it was removed due to the criticism he’d received from conservatives, who called it blasphemous.

“I did post it, and I thought it was me as a doctor, and had to do with the Red Cross, as a Red Cross worker there, which we support,” Trump told reporters outside of the Oval Office on Monday.

Tillis downplayed the political impact of the post on Wednesday, while also offering pushback against the president’s recent rhetoric toward the pontiff.

“You don’t engage the pope as a head of state, particularly the most powerful head of state in the world,” Tillis, a Catholic, said.

“I felt like the president views him as a political leader, and maybe he is at some level, but he’s also the head of the Catholic Church, and he is speaking the very same things that he would speak at church, whether or not this Iranian conflict was going on,” he added. “And to say soft on crime or soft on the border, that’s what you say to an opponent in the next election, or, you know, maybe a presidential or prime minister candidate in some other country, but not to the pope of the Catholic Church.”

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