Pope Ignoramus the Vile
Trump recently posted an AI-generated image of himself as pope. Besides being sacrilegious, offensive to Catholics, and ignorant of what it takes to be elected pope, this is a massive affront to American democracy.
The USA was founded as a deliberately non-religious nation. The USA does not have a king, let alone a head of a state church. But what Trump is proposing is even worse: having the religious leader of a foreign state be in charge of the country.
Put aside that Trump is the least religious, least wise, and least morally good person you could imagine, and for those reasons utterly unfit to be pope (or President, for that matter, but here we are). The image, Trump’s stated desire in a press scrum to be selected pope, and his comment in an interview this week on NBC’s Meet the Press that he “doesn’t know” if he needs to uphold the Constitution, add up to a truly offensive, anti-American and dangerous moment in American history.
The First Amendment says, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” (It goes on to enumerate several other important rights: free speech, free press, free assembly, petition for redress.) The first part, the Establishment Clause, says that no state religion is allowed. It is interpreted in case law to mean that the government cannot impose religious doctrine on the People. The second part, the Free Exercise clause, says that the government cannot restrict personal religious belief and practices. It is interpreted in case law as meaning that the state cannot create laws infringing the freedom of individuals to believe and worship as they wish (though this does not come with the right to harm others through one’s religious practices: others are free to believe and act as they wish, too).
Trump may have meant his AI pope picture and some of his comments as a joke or trolling, and he will probably say that in response to criticism. But it fits with a well-established pattern of abuses of power, attempts to impose religious extremist ideas on the People, and a willingness to violate the Constitution despite his oath to uphold it. He has started selling Trump 2028 merchandise—he’ll say now, as a joke—even though the Constitution prohibits anyone from serving more than two terms as President. We have all seen how he is violating the Constitution’s requirements for due process in how he has been trying to deport people, including some American citizens, without any legal process.
People tried to warn us about the religious extremism behind Project 2025. Trump disavowed Project 2025 during the 2024 election, but 100 days into his second presidency a huge amount of Project 2025 has been put into practice already, and many of the people behind it have now been appointed to important government positions.
None of this is a surprise. We have to make sure that we don’t let our disgust and our sense that “of course” he is going to pull stuff like this, lead us to merely shaking our heads and trying to get on with our days. Trump’s unconstitutional moves toward fascism and religious extremism must be vigorously resisted at every turn in every way possible.
