Dear Editor,
On April 12, Divine Mercy Sunday, President Donald Trump posted on his Truth social media platform, an AI-generated photo of himself as Jesus. The President states he was picturing himself as a physician. Three days later the President posted another "photo" of Jesus and himself. Last year, the President posted an image of himself as the Pope!
The images are "par for the course" for the President. What really concerns me are some of the other actions by our President during the first 16 months of his second term in office. A partial list includes: The pardons of the Jan. 6 rioters; the questionable tactics used by ICE agents; the military strikes on alleged drug boats (latest lethal strike took place on April 14 which brought the total deaths to 175); the forcible removal of the President of Venezuela and his wife; his brazen talk of "taking" Greenland (by force if necessary); and the war in Iran (the threat to "bomb Iran into oblivion" and warned a "whole civilization will die tonight never to be brought back again’). I could go on.
And if you disagree with the President, he goes into attack mode. Just ask Pope Leo XIV and the countless
others who have questioned some of his decisions. The President acts many times like a man without scruples, other than to his own ego.
Vice-President JD Vance opioned that Trump’s photo was just a "joke" and that Pope Leo needed a lesson on "theology". By the way, Vance and Secretary of State Marcus Rubio, along with their wives, attended Pope Leo XIV’s Inauguration Mass in Saint Peter’s Square on May 18, 2025.
The Pope in his homily that day proclaimed: "With the light and the strength of the Holy Spirit, let us build a Church founded on God’s love, a sign of unity, a missionary Church that opens its arms to the world, proclaims the word, allows itself to be made ‘restless’ by history, and becomes a leaven of harmony for humanity."
Maybe Vance and Rubio (both Catholic) can pay more attention to what Pope Leo has been preaching during the first eleven months of his papacy. It has been estimated that in the first three months alone, the Pope had spoken of "peace" at least a hundred times!
Patrick Hardyman Blanchardville, WI