Donald Trump has posted an AI image of himself as pontiff, as the Pope in full regalia. This is offensive to millions of Americans, both Catholic and non-Catholic. And whether or not he pictures himself riding a raptor with a machine gun or the Pope, or whatever other delusional fantasy he has, his policies are not working for the vast majority of this country.
Transcript:
*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.
Caleb Cunningham: So we’ve seen that Trump has posted an AI image of himself as pontiff, as the Pope in full regalia, said that he would be his choice as Pope, of course, JD Vance, an adult convert to Catholicism, said nobody can take a joke anymore.
Farron Cousins: You know, I was born and raised Catholic. I’m elapsed Catholic at this point. It has been many years since I’ve been in the church, but I will say, and I’m not somebody that gets offended by anything. This was offensive. And a lot of that just has to do with the sheer audacity and the disgustingness of this. This man is not even a member of the Catholic faith. He’s not a member of any faith. He is the most fake evangelical I’ve ever seen. That photo of him at Easter Mass where he looked like he would rather be anywhere else on the planet than in church. So we’re talking about a guy that there’s a good chance he’s broken every commandment. Maybe one he didn’t. And to do this at a time of mourning for the Catholic faith, because our Pope has died, this is just one of the most distasteful things he’s ever done.
Caleb Cunningham: And let’s not forget, the Pope has passed, a beloved Pope. He’s laying in state, the process is happening. They have not elected a new Pope. He posts this, and of course, the rights response is always, nobody can take a joke anymore. A joke has to be funny.
Farron Cousins: Right.
Caleb Cunningham: This is not funny. This is offensive to millions of Americans, both Catholic and non-Catholic. This was a beloved religious leader that had turned the tide on some of the scandal, was doing a lot of good, whether you liked him or not. He was a religious leader and a beloved man for millions of people across the world. And to mock his position by putting yourself there. And of course a lot of this is distraction. As we see with Trump, you put up flack as Americans are hurting at the grocery store, as Americans are losing their jobs. You’re posting pictures of yourself as the pope. I mean,
Obviously you’re not having an economic summit and talking about plans to do something meaningful as the elected president, as the person who campaigned on, I’m going to lower these prices. You’re posting pictures of yourself as the Pope. I think that this is quintessential what his presidency has been about is I will generate a news story. I will cause a controversy. The political pundits will be talking about the controversy and how it offended people. People who love him are reveling in this and saying he’d be the greatest Pope ever. These people are clearly not of the Catholic faith or do not respect religious leaders. This is one of the nastier things he’s done, particularly given that one of the last people that the Pope met with was his vice president, famously. He passes away unexpectedly and now you’re posting yourself as the Pope.
Farron Cousins: So he did this on a Friday afternoon, and then that blows up and it becomes the whole big thing on the weekend until Trump goes on Sunday in the interview with Meet the Press, which was a horrible interview for him. He did very poorly. So that distraction of the Pope picture only lasted about a day and a half. So what did they do? What did they come out with Monday? I’m reopening Alcatraz. Oh, look at this. And of course it’s a non-issue. It takes more than Trump saying, reopen it, to do it, but it’s a distraction. So I think you had a very great point with that, that this is, obviously, it is disgusting and it is vile, but he knew that this would do this. And he knew that the Alcatraz story would distract people from him saying, oh, well, maybe your child’s gonna have two dolls instead of 30, and prices are gonna go up, admitting that his tariffs have failed. So, Alcatraz, I’m reopening it, and everybody flocks to that. It’s so predictable almost at this point. Anytime he does or says something stupid or a member of his administration does, they’re going to come out with something just totally off the walls bonkers to get everybody looking at that.
Caleb Cunningham: Well, I think the American people have to remember what does it look like at your grocery store right now? There are shelves that are empty. Eggs are crazy expensive. You can’t get out of a grocery store for spending less than a hundred bucks. People are being laid off across this country. Ports are running dry. And he’s posting pictures of himself as the pontiff while the pontiff has passed. I think that this is quintessential him, right? And the people have to pay attention. We cannot be distracted. We have to hold to account. We have to write our representatives and our Congress people, because they need to do something about this. I think that they would’ve impeached Obama over this.
Farron Cousins: Oh yeah.
Caleb Cunningham: When you look at the other side there was a whole scandal about a brown suit that lasted for months. Can you imagine if he would’ve posted a picture of himself as the Pope and said he wanted to be the next Pope, what would’ve happened?
Farron Cousins: Right. And we already see a lot of that hypocrisy for Michelle Obama saying, we need to get children eating healthier. That’s what we need to. that was her initiative. That was her big thing and Fox News attacked her all the time. Like, how dare you tell us what to eat? And now we got Robert F. Kennedy Jr. saying the exact same thing and Republicans are like, well, absolutely, yes, he’s correct. We need to change how we eat. It is this massive double standard. We see it with the mental capacity. For the last year up to and including today, there’s still stories about President Biden’s mental capacity, yet this crazy guy who’s clearly suffering from probably both neurological and psychological symptoms, just nothing. He can say the craziest things in the world, and if Biden had done one of these, they would’ve been talking about using the 25th Amendment to get him out of office that day.
Caleb Cunningham: One of the most despicable things to me is hypocrisy and not understanding the consequences of your actions. Both as a former prosecutor, we have to, we are adults, you’re citizens, and that comes with responsibility. Can you imagine that if the next president named the Gulf of America, the Gulf of Harriet Tubman, the riots that there would be? This, it is just nonsense and I understand there’s a purpose to it. It’s to distract us so that we don’t feel these causes, this anti wokeism, that’s not real. These are distractions. The reality, what policy does is it should make our lives better. It should make us more safe. It should make us more prosperous. Are those things happening in your life? That is the question that we have to ask of our government. And I think for a lot of people, the answer is no. And whether or not he pictures himself as riding a raptor with a machine gun or the Pope, or whatever other delusional fantasy he has, the policies are not working for the vast majority of this country.
