President Donald Trump’s bright idea to post a bizarre AI-generated image of himself as Jesus Christ may not have been entirely his own.
The 79-year-old president had reportedly discussed the blasphemous fake photo with his controversial head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, Bill Pulte, before posting it to his Truth Social account, Axios reported Wednesday night.
Two advisers who spoke to the president about the picture told the outlet that Pulte, 37, brought up the image to Trump while the two were in South Florida together over the weekend, though it was unclear whether Pulte pulled it up on his phone or sent it directly to the president.
“Everyone thought it was a joke,” one adviser said.
Another adviser who is cozy with Pulte told Axios that the housing finance chief and Mar-a-Lago club member did not give the meme to Trump.
The Daily Beast reached out to the White House and the FHFA for comment.
Pulte has quietly stirred up trouble behind the scenes throughout Trump’s second presidency, even getting on the nerves of some of his fellow administration officials.
At a MAGA dinner event in September, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent threatened to punch the 5′8″ housing czar “in the f---ing face,” even suggesting the two go outside so Bessent could “f---ing beat [his] a--,” Politico reported.
Pulte has also reportedly been instrumental in inflaming the president’s ire toward Fed chair Jerome Powell, as he has put pressure on Congress to investigate the Federal Reserve chief for “political bias” and “deceptive Senate testimony.”
The Trump attack dog was also the brilliant mind behind the administration’s short-sighted, short-lived idea of 50-year mortgages, which the president later ditched after it drew scrutiny.
On Sunday, the president puzzled both critics and supporters alike when he posted an AI-generated image on Truth Social, which seemingly depicted him as Jesus Christ.
The picture showed Trump wearing a Christ-like robe, seemingly healing a sick man on a bed below him by touching his forehead with glowing, golden hands.
The president deleted the post on Monday, then defended his decision to post it with an equally absurd excuse.
“It’s supposed to be me as a doctor making people better,” Trump said, after having McDonald’s delivered to the Oval Office by the “DoorDash Grandma.” “I did post it, and I thought it was me as a doctor—it had to do with Red Cross, there’s a Red Cross worker there, which we support.”
“Only the fake news could come up with that one (the depiction of Jesus),” he added. “I just heard about it, and said: ‘How did they come up with that?”
The post enraged even the president’s most staunch supporters, including 19-year-old MAGA influencer Brilyn Hollyhand, who called the image “gross blasphemy.”
Two days later, on Wednesday morning, the president posted yet another blasphemous image, this time of himself standing with the Son of God.
“The Radical Left Lunatics might not like this, but I think it is quite nice!!!” Trump captioned the post.
