New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan reacted this Sunday, May 4, from Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in Rome to the viral AI image of U.S. president Donald Trump dressed as a pope.
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) May 3, 2025
The image was posed on Donald Trump’s Truth Social account. On Friday, May 2, it was republished by the White House on its official X account, capping a week in which the U.S. president joked that he would like to be the next pope. “I would like to be pope. That would be my first choice,” declared Trump, who is married.
In fact, Trump doesn’t practice Catholicism, though he considers himself a Christian.
One person who does identify as a practicing, confessing Catholic is JD Vance, the vice president of the United States. Vance, the last world leader to meet Pope Francis on Easter Sunday, endorsed Donald Trump’s “humor.” He invited people to view the image as a joke. “As a general rule, I’m fine with people telling jokes and not fine with people starting stupid wars that kill thousands of my countrymen,” he declared in a post on X.
While it might be a joke to many, New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan wasn’t amused by the image of Donald Trump dressed as a Catholic pope. He made this clear on Sunday outside the Church of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Rome, where journalists sought his reaction.
Addressing the media, Dolan responded in Italian, saying, “Ha fatto una brutta figura” — roughly translating to “he looked bad” or “he made a bad impression.” He emphasized that the release of the artificial intelligence image of Trump “was not right.”
The 75-year-old Archbishop of New York is part of the conclave of 133 cardinals from around the world who, starting this Wednesday, May 7, will gather in the Sistine Chapel in Rome to elect the new pope.
Cardinal Timothy Dolan is well-regarded by Donald Trump as the next leader of the Catholic Church. He made this clear to reporters last week. When asked who he preferred as the next Pontiff, the U.S. president stated that he had no special preference. However, he added, “We have a cardinal who happens to be in the place called New York (referring to Dolan) who is very good. So we’ll see what happens.”
In Rome, the Archbishop of New York spoke out against the publication of Donald Trump’s image. And shortly before that, in the United States, the Catholic Conference of the State of New York expressed its condemnation.
“We have just buried our beloved Pope Francis, and the cardinals are about to enter into a solemn conclave to elect a new successor to Saint Peter. Don’t mock us,” was their complaint to the U.S. president.
This is not the first time that Cardinal and Archbishop of New York has participated in the conclave to elect the new pope, and his name has been mentioned as a favourite.
In addition to Timothy Dolan, nine other cardinas are participating in the conclave, which will conclude with the election of the new leader of the Catholic Church.