JD Vance Defends President Trump’s AI Jesus Image as ‘a Joke,’ Says Critics ‘Didn’t Understand’

Vice President JD Vance has addressed the AI-generated photo President Donald Trump posted that many people thought was a picture of him depicting himself as Jesus.

“I think the president was posting a joke, and of course, he took it down because he recognized a lot of people weren’t understanding his humor in that case,” Vance, 41, said, defending Trump, 79, in an interview on Fox News on Monday, April 13.

“I think the president of the United States likes to mix it up on social media, and I actually think that’s one of the good things about this president is that he’s not filtered,” he continued. “He doesn’t send everything through a communications professional. He actually reaches out directly to the people.”

Earlier this week, Trump shared an AI-generated image that showed him wearing white robes with red cloth draped around his neck as he healed a sick man in a hospital bed with a ray of light from his palm. He was surrounded by several people, including one woman holding her hands in a prayer pose, and there were angelic military figures in the sky behind him.

Many people online slammed the photo, and evangelical Christian writer for The Daily Wire Megan Basham described it as “outrageous blasphemy.”

However, after the former host of The Apprentice removed the picture, he told reporters he had not intended to portray himself as Jesus.

“I thought it was me as a doctor. And had to do with the Red Cross, as a Red Cross worker, which we support,” Trump told reporters. “Only the fake news could come up with that one. I just heard about it. It’s supposed to be me as a doctor, making people better. And I do make people better. I make people a lot better.”