Trump may believe he is the messiah – but his attack on the pope could prove costly for JD Vance | Arwa Mahdawi

The president’s attack on the head of the Catholic church and the AI depiction of himself as a Christ-like figure have not gone down well with one of the largest groups of swing voters in the US

Poor persecuted Donald Trump has frequently portrayed himself as a https://people.com/trump-comparison-jesus-they-call-me-king-11941521">modern messiah.

Some of his supporters, meanwhile, have compared him https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/10/politics/video/marjorie-taylor-greene-compares-trump-jesus-rally-digvid">directly to Jesus.

And, to be fair, while the son of God didn’t eat Big Macs on a private jet and https://www.thestreet.com/investing/stocks/trump-endorsed-palantir-stock-and-the-market-reacted">encourage his followers to buy AI stocks, there are similarities between the two figures.

Namely the miracle-working.

The US president may not be able to turn water into wine, but he’s turned public office into a https://www.americanprogress.org/feature/trumps-take/">personal goldmine.

This week, Trump also managed to transform a staunch atheist (me) into a defender of the Catholic church.

I’m not defending everything, mind you, just Pope Leo XIV’s recent condemnations of war. “God does not bless any conflict,” the pope https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/apr/10/pope-leo-criticism-iran-war">wrote on X on Friday. “Anyone who is a disciple of Christ, the Prince of Peace, is never on the side of those who … drop bombs.” During https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/apr/11/pope-leo-us-israel-iran-war">Saturday prayers, the pope also called out the “delusion of omnipotence”.

While Leo didn’t name names, his statements were widely interpreted as a rebuke of the Trump administration, which has repeatedly framed its warmongering in https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2026/apr/10/pete-hegseth-christianity-iran-war-crusade">religious terms.