Iran President condemns ‘desecration’ of Jesus after Trump’s controversial post

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has condemned US President Donald Trump’s artificial intelligence-generated image depicting himself as Jesus Christ and extended a message of solidarity to Pope Leo XIV, whom Trump had separately described as “weak and terrible,”.

Masoud said the desecration of Jesus was unacceptable to any free person.

Pezeshkian made the statement in a post directed at the Pope on X on Monday.

“Your Excellency Pope Leo XIV, on behalf of the great nation of Iran, I condemn the insult to Your Excellency and declare that the desecration of Jesus, peace be upon him, the Prophet of peace and brotherhood, is unacceptable to any free person. I wish glory for you from Allah,” Pezeshkian wrote.

The Iranian president’s tweet came after Trump shared the AI-generated image on his Truth Social platform, in which the US president appears dressed in a robe, performing what resembles a healing act, surrounded by dazzling light and levitating figures resembling troops or angels.

The Statue of Liberty and fireworks feature prominently in the background of the image.

In a separate post, Trump turned his attention to Pope Leo XIV, labelling the pontiff as “weak on crime” and “terrible for foreign policy” following the Pope’s public call for an end to the escalating international hostilities involving the United States, Iran, and Israel.

Trump’s depictions drew widespread reaction, with Pezeshkian’s response notable for its invocation of Islamic reverence for Jesus — who is regarded as a prophet in Islam — as the basis for his condemnation of what he described as the desecration of a shared religious figure.