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President Donald Trump has never been one to avoid chaos and controversy, especially on Truth Social.
But what we’ve seen in recent weeks represents a new low — even for Trump.
The most disturbing, and most serious, post came last week when he threatened to wipe out Iran, writing, “A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again.”
Let’s not gloss over this. The president of the United States threatened genocide. As The New York Times’ Katie Rogers wrote, “And that is what passed as a normal Tuesday-morning update from the Trump White House: a warning of mass destruction and what international law would define as war crimes, blithely delivered on Truth Social, posted alongside ads for bullet-shaped pens, patriotic hats and a gala dinner at Mar-a-Lago.”
That came just two days after Trump wrote, “Open the F—–’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell — JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah.” (Trump actually wrote the F-word.)
Then, on Sunday, Trump picked a fight with, of all people, the pope — the first American pope in history. In a lengthy and scathing Truth Social post, Trump wrote Pope Leo XIV was “WEAK on crime.”
Trump praised Leo’s brother, who he called MAGA and said “gets it.” Trump also wrote, “And I don’t want a Pope who criticizes the President of the United States because I’m doing exactly what I was elected, IN A LANDSLIDE, to do, setting Record Low Numbers in Crime, and creating the Greatest Stock Market in History. Leo should be thankful because, as everyone knows, he was a shocking surprise. He wasn’t on any list to be Pope, and was only put there by the Church because he was an American, and they thought that would be the best way to deal with President Donald J. Trump. If I wasn’t in the White House, Leo wouldn’t be in the Vatican.”
Leo has been critical of the war in Iran, saying, “God does not bless any conflict.” That likely came in response to comments from Trump administration officials framing the conflict as a holy war. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has said Americans should pray “every day, on bended knee” for a military victory in the Middle East “in the name of Jesus Christ.”
Leo also said Trump’s comments about wiping out an entire civilization were “truly unacceptable.”
Still, Trump’s attack on Leo was jaw-dropping. Even many of Trump’s most ardent detractors were stunned by his brazenness in going after one of the holiest people on the planet.
Trump even doubled down on his criticism of Leo when asked by reporters. Trump said he does not owe Leo an apology, adding, “Because Pope Leo said things that are wrong. He was very much against what I’m doing with regard to Iran, and you cannot have a nuclear Iran. Pope Leo would not be happy with the end result.”
When talking to reporters on Monday, Leo said, “I’m not afraid of the Trump administration or of speaking out loudly about the message of the Gospel, which is what the Church works for.”
Leo added, “We are not politicians. We do not look at foreign policy from the same perspective that he may have. I will continue to speak out strongly against war, seeking to promote peace, promoting dialogue and multilateralism among states to find solutions to problems. Too many people are suffering today, too many innocent people have been killed, and I believe someone must stand up and say that there is a better way.”
Speaking to The Associated Press, Leo said, “To put my message on the same plane as what the president has attempted to do here, I think is not understanding what the message of the Gospel is. And I’m sorry to hear that but I will continue on what I believe is the mission of the church in the world today.”
Trump’s attacks on Leo came not long after “60 Minutes” aired a story feaaturing three American cardinals who are close to Leo discussing the war in Iran. One of those cardinals recently in a homily called the war in Iran “immoral.”
Whatever Trump’s reason, his knee-jerk and aggressive posts could be politically hazardous.
Marco Politi, a longtime Vatican watcher and author, told The Washington Post’s Anthony Faiola and Karen Tumulty, “You have to jump back to the Middle Ages when kings and emperors were shouting against the pope in Rome and calling him false. There is just no other recent example like this.”
Faiola and Tumulty wrote, “The Catholic Church’s moral authority has declined substantially after decades of clerical abuse scandals, and the weight of a pope’s words is not what it once was. But the risk of a direct confrontation with a sitting pope, observers say, is perhaps greater for Trump — who is taking on not only the first pope born in the United States, but a spiritual touchstone for an important, core group of Republican voters: conservative White Catholics. And he is doing so in a midterm congressional election year. The pushback on Monday included conservative Catholic leaders such as Bishop Robert Barron, who serves on Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission, and called on the president to apologize to Leo. ‘The statements made by President Trump on Truth Social regarding the Pope were entirely inappropriate and disrespectful.’”
But wait, there’s more …
If Trump’s insult of the pope wasn’t enough to offend many Christians, the president decided to crash through the guardrails and over the cliff.
Not long after posting his attack on the pope, Trump posted on Truth Social something even more bizarre: an image of him, appearing to look like Jesus, placing his hand on a sick man’s forehead, as if attempting to heal him. After much backlash, the post was taken down.
But the image was almost too wild to believe. The Washington Post’s Natalie Allison wrote, “Trump shared an image that appeared to be AI-generated in the style of a painting, depicting him in a long white robe with a red cloak draped around his shoulders. In one hand was an orb glowing with light; Trump’s other hand rested on the forehead of a man in what resembled a hospital bed — light beaming from the man’s head as Trump appeared to pray for his healing. Patriotic symbols including an eagle, fireworks and the Statue of Liberty filled the frame.”
For once, it appeared, Trump had gone too far, with his post garnering condemnation from the religious right — including many of his most ardent supporters.
Megan Basham, a prominent conservative and Protestant Christian writer for The Daily Wire, tweeted, “I don’t know if the President thought he was being funny or if he is under the influence of some substance or what possible explanation he could have for this OUTRAGEOUS blasphemy. But he needs to take this down immediately and ask for forgiveness from the American people and then from God.”
Conservative commentator Megyn Kelly said, “It is obviously him purporting to be God. That is what he’s doing. And it is blasphemous, by any definition of the word.” Kelly added, “It’s completely inappropriate and he knows it.”
That’s just a couple of examples of the many people outraged and shocked by Trump’s post.
After about 12 hours, the post was taken down. On Monday, when asked by reporters, Trump offered a laughable excuse, saying, “I thought it was me as a doctor, and had to do with Red Cross, as a Red Cross worker, which we support. … It’s supposed to be me as a doctor, making people better. And I do make people better. I make people a lot better.”
He also said it was “fake news” that he was depicting Jesus.
Allison wrote in her Post story, “In the photo, Trump’s clothing is reminiscent of clothing worn in Jesus’ time and does not appear to be an outfit a modern doctor would wear. There is no reference in the photo to the Red Cross.”
Also, Red Cross workers generally don’t carry a glowing ball of sunshine in their hands, as Trump is in the image.
A mental health problem?
Trump has always been an agent of chaos — particularly on Truth Social, where his stream of consciousness, weird use of capital letters, aggressive threats and odd hours of the posts have made people question his mental fitness.
Does he have a crazy-like-a-fox strategy behind his posts? Does he do it to troll people? Does he do it to draw focus away from other matters? Is he so starved for attention that he’ll post anything to be at the top of the news cycle?
On Monday, The New York Times’ Peter Baker wrote a story with his provocative headline: “Trump’s Erratic Behavior and Extreme Comments Revive Mental Health Debate.”
Baker writes that these various erratic posts “have left many with the impression of a deranged autocrat mad with power.”
Baker continued by writing, “The White House rejected such assessments, saying that Trump is sharp and keeping his opponents on edge. But the president’s eruptions have raised questions about America’s leadership in a time of war. While the country has had presidents whose capacity came under question before, most recently the octogenarian Joseph R. Biden Jr. as he aged demonstrably before the public’s eyes, never in modern times has the stability of a president been so publicly and forensically debated — and with such profound consequences.”
Baker notes that it’s not just Democrats and the unusual Trump critics who are questioning Trump’s mental capacity, but people who once worked closely with him. Ty Cobb, a White House lawyer in Trump’s first term, told the journalist Jim Acosta that Trump is “a man who is clearly insane.” And Stephanie Grisham, a former White House press secretary for Trump, tweeted, “He’s clearly not well (I don’t enjoy saying that) & ur nowhere to b found. This isn’t ‘just Trump being Trump’ & u ALL know it.”
However, Baker notes that Trump still appears to have clear and strong support among his cabinet and the GOP side of the aisle in Congress.
In fact, just to show the excuses being made, Vice President JD Vance told Fox News’ Bret Baier that the president was only joking when he posted a photo of himself as Jesus and took it down when “a lot of people weren’t understanding his humor.”
Vance then defended Trump for liking to “mix it up on social media” and saying that being unfiltered is one of his strengths.
Check it out
Be sure to read this really smart piece from The Atlantic’s David A. Graham: “The Parable of the President. Donald Trump’s criticism of Pope Leo XIV reveals that to him, religion is primarily about power, not morality.”
Trump suit dismissed
Trump’s defamation lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal was dismissed by a federal judge on Monday. Trump was suing the Journal’s publisher over the Journal publishing a report about his lewd birthday message to the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Essentially, U.S. District Judge Darrin P. Gayles in Florida ruled that Trump failed to show that he had been defamed. However, Gayles dismissed the complaint without prejudice, meaning that Trump can refile the suit — something he said he intends to do.
The Wall Street Journal’s Corinne Ramey wrote, “The judge said that to show defamation, Trump had to demonstrate that the Journal and its reporters acted with ‘actual malice,’ meaning they deliberately published a false story or showed reckless disregard for the truth. Trump failed to show that the reporters acted with ill will and deliberately avoided investigating his claim that the letter was fake, the judge said.”
Gayles wrote, “The complaint comes nowhere close to this standard. Quite the opposite.”
Gayles noted that the Journal reached out to Trump, the Justice Department and the FBI before publishing the story. He added, “In short, the complaint and the article confirm that defendants attempted to investigate.”
A spokesman for Dow Jones, the publisher of the Journal, said in a statement: “We are pleased with the judge’s decision to dismiss this complaint. We stand behind the reliability, rigor and accuracy of The Wall Street Journal’s reporting.”
In a Truth Social post after Monday’s ruling, Trump wrote, “Our powerful case against The Wall Street Journal, and other defendants, was asked to be re-filed by the Judge. It is not a termination, it is a suggested re-filing, and we will be, as per the Order, re-filing an updated lawsuit on or before April 27th.”
Speaking out
Tiffany Haddish, shown here in January. (Andrew Park/Invision/AP)
Lots of big talent is coming out against Paramount’s deal to buy Warner Bros. Discovery. More than 1,000 actors, directors and writers put out a letter Monday opposing the acquisition.
Who signed the letter? A-listers including Adam McKay, Alan Cumming, Bryan Cranston, David Fincher, Glenn Close, Jane Fonda, JJ Abrams, Jason Bateman, John Leguizamo, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Margaret Cho, Mark Ruffalo, Noah Wyle, Patti Lupone, Ramy Youssef, Rosario Dawson, Rosie O’Donnell, Ted Danson, Tiffany Haddish, Tig Notaro, Yorgos Lanthimos and Yvette Nicole Brown.
The letter said, in part, “This transaction would further consolidate an already concentrated media landscape, reducing competition at a moment when our industries — and the audiences we serve — can least afford it. The result will be fewer opportunities for creators, fewer jobs across the production ecosystem, higher costs, and less choice for audiences in the United States and around the world. Alarmingly, this merger would reduce the number of major U.S. film studios to just four.”
It continued by saying, “Our industry is already under severe strain, in large part due to prior waves of consolidation. We have witnessed a steep decline in the number of films produced and released, alongside a narrowing of the kinds of stories that are financed and distributed. Increasingly, a small number of powerful entities determine what gets made — and on what terms — leaving creators and independent businesses with fewer viable paths to sustain their work.”
Paramount’s deal to buy WBD is expected to be completed by year’s end and needs regulatory approval from the Trump administration, which should not be an issue.
Click the link above for the entire letter as well as the names of everyone who signed it.
The New York Times’ Benjamin Mullin wrote, “A Paramount spokeswoman said in a statement that the company understood the concerns that ‘some in the creative community have raised,’ adding that the deal with Warner Bros. will preserve ‘iconic brands with independent creative leadership — ensuring creators have more avenues for their work, not fewer.’”
Dickie V update
Legendary ESPN college basketball analyst Dick Vitale shared on social media Monday that he has melanoma, a form of skin cancer, in his lungs and liver. Vitale, 86, says he will start immunotherapy soon.
Vitale has battled various cancers over the past several years.
He wrote in his post shared by ESPN, “I’ve beaten melanoma. I’ve beaten lymphoma. I’ve beaten vocal cord cancer. I’ve beaten lymph node cancer. I’m four-for-four, and I’m fully confident I’m going to make it five-for-five.”
He added, “The best news I can share today is this: I feel fantastic.”
As I wrote last week when Vitale announced he was getting more tests on his health, here’s wishing him the very best. Dickie V is one of the all-time good guys.
Media tidbits
- The Guardian’s Richard Luscombe with “Trump media company drops lawsuit against the Guardian.”
- The Hollywood Reporter’s Alex Weprin with “New York Times Shakes Up Senior Exec Ranks As It Leans Into Product, Data and AI.”
- The New York Times’ Benjamin Mullin with “The Economist Is Putting Names (and Faces) to Its Magazine.”
- The Los Angeles Times’ Meg James with “Call it the Bad Bunny Effect: Why Telemundo no longer is an underdog.”
Hot type
- The New York Times’ Teddy Rosenbluth with “He Warned About the Dangers of A.I. If Only His Father Had Listened.”
More resources for journalists
- Gain access to top courses and members-only webinars. Become a Poynter Member today.
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Have feedback or a tip? Email Poynter senior media writer Tom Jones at tjones@poynter.org.
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