Trump deletes social media post depicting him as Jesus but refuses to apologize amid tension with pope | CNN Politics

President Donald Trump is backing away from a social media post depicting himself as Jesus — but not from the broader war of words he’s still waging against Pope Leo XIV. Trump on Monday deleted an image of him as Jesus from his Truth Social account amid intense backlash, telling reporters that he thought it was meant to portray him as a doctor. “I thought it was me as a doctor and had to do with Red Cross,” he said outside the West Wing. “It’s supposed to be me as a doctor making people better. And I do make people better.” Yet pressed on whether he also disavowed a separate post in which he slammed the pope as “WEAK on Crime” and accused him of “catering to the Radical Left,” Trump stood his ground. “Pope Leo said things that are wrong,” Trump said, adding that he wouldn’t apologize for his social media post. “We believe strongly in law and order, and he seemed to have a problem with that, so there’s nothing to apologize for.” The pope first earned Trump’s ire last year over comments seen as critical of the administration’s mass deportation policies. Leo has since clashed with Trump over the US and Israel’s war with Iran, urging the sides t