Trump posts AI-generated photo of himself as pope

President Donald Trump posted an AI-generated photo showing himself as the pope ahead of this week's gathering of cardinals to choose a new leader of the 1.4-billion-strong Catholic Church, and just 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, less than a week after attending the funeral of Pope 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.

The irreverent posting drew instant outrage on X, including from Republicans against Trump, a group that describes itself as "pro-democracy conservative Republicans fighting Trump & Trumpism." The group reposted the image, calling it "a blatant insult to Catholics and a mockery of their faith".

Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni declined to comment on the image during a briefing with journalists about the process of electing a new pope, which begins on May 7.

In mid-February, both Trump and the official White House social media accounts posted a different AI-generated image of the president wearing a crown and captioned "CONGESTION PRICING IS DEAD. Manhattan, and all of New York, is SAVED. LONG LIVE THE KING!"

In West Palm Beach, Debbie Macchia, 60, stood waiting with a dozen other supporters as Trump's motorcade arrived at his golf club on Saturday morning.

"He was clearly joking. Clearly joking," said Macchia, who is Jewish. "But I wouldn't want to see them do anything sacrilegious with the pope, or anything."