Catholic community reacts to Trump’s AI image of himself as the pope
ABC News
(VATICAN CITY) — An AI-generated image of President Donald Trump dressed as the pope is drawing criticism from some Catholics after it was posted on social media just days before the papal conclave to select the next pontiff begins in Rome.
The image, which was shared on Trump’s social media and the official White House account on Friday evening, shows an AI-generated image of the president wearing papal clothes and sitting on a throne.
Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the archbishop of New York, was asked by reporters about the image after he had finished a service at a church in Rome on Sunday. In his response, Dolan used the Italian words, “brutta figura,” meaning the post was embarrassing.
“I hope he didn’t have anything to do with it,” Dolan said. “It wasn’t good. As Italians say, it was brutta figura (embarrasing).”
The New York State Catholic Conference also voiced outrage at the image, saying, “there is nothing clever or funny about this image, Mr. President.”
“We just buried our beloved Pope Francis and the cardinals are about to enter a solemn conclave to elect a new successor of St. Peter. Do not mock us,” the conference said on X on Saturday.
Father James Martin, a papal contributor for ABC, said on “This Week” Sunday, “People were surprised by it and thought it was incredibly poor taste, but over here in Rome more people are concerned about the next pope than the current president.”
Vice President JD Vance, who is Catholic, denied the post was offensive. When conservative commentator Bill Kristol wrote on X, “Hey, @JDVance, you fine with this disrespect and mocking of the Holy Father?” the vice president replied, “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.”
When asked to respond to the criticism, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said President Trump “flew to Italy to pay his respects for Pope Francis and attend his funeral, and he has been a staunch champion for Catholics and religious liberty,” according to The Associated Press.
The process to elect the next pope will begin in Wednesday, May 7, according to the Vatican.
ABC News’ Camilla Alcini contributed to this report.
LONDON — Vishwaskumar Ramesh, the only survivor of the Air India plane crash headed to the United Kingdom from Ahmedabad, India, that left all 241 other passengers and crew dead, along with five more on the ground, said he “thought I would die” as he recovers in the hospital a day after the tragedy.
“Everything happened in front of my eyes. I thought I would die,” Ramesh told NDTV in an exclusive interview on Friday. “The side where I was seated fell into the ground floor of the building. There was some space. When the door broke, I saw that space and I just jumped out.”
“The door must’ve broken on impact,” Ramesh continued. “There was a wall on the opposite side, but near me, it was open. I ran. I don’t know how. I don’t know how I came out of it alive. For a while, I thought I was about to die. But when I opened my eyes, I saw I was alive, and I opened my seat belt and got out of there. The airhostess … died before my eyes.”
The Air India airliner carrying 230 passengers and 12 crew members was en route to the United Kingdom and crashed into a building shortly after takeoff on Thursday, leaving 246 dead, officials said.
The victims include 241 passengers and crew members as well as five medical students who were inside the medical college and hospital the aircraft crashed into, according to hospital officials. Many others inside the building were injured — some seriously — and are receiving treatment, hospital officials said.
Ramesh’s brother, Nayankumar Ramesh, said it is a “miracle” his brother survived.
“He said, ‘Our plane’s crashed, I don’t know where my brother is. I don’t see any other passengers. I don’t know how I’m alive, how I exited the plane,” Nayankumar Ramesh told ABC News about his brother’s escape from the plane. “Just hearing about the crash, I’m scared to fly now, to even stay on a plane now.”
The plane, a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, crashed in the Meghaninagar area near Ahmedabad airport, in India’s Gujarat state, the city’s Police Commissioner G.S. Malik said Thursday.
Boeing’s Dreamliner planes had not previously been involved in an incident where passenger fatalities were reported. This plane had more than 41,000 hours of flying time, which is considered average for this aircraft, according to Cirium, an aviation analytics firm.
“Our deepest condolences go out to the loved ones of the passengers and crew on board Air India Flight 171, as well as everyone affected in Ahmedabad. I have spoken with Air India Chairman N. Chandrasekaran to offer our full support, and a Boeing team stands ready to support the investigation led by India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau,” Boeing President and CEO Kelly Ortberg said in a statement.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in a statement that he’d been in touch with local officials after the crash.
“The tragedy in Ahmedabad has stunned and saddened us,” he said in a statement on social media. “It is heartbreaking beyond words. In this sad hour, my thoughts are with everyone affected by it.”
(PARIS) — A verdict was reached Friday in the 2016 jewelry heist of Kim Kardashian in Paris.
Nine men and one woman were accused in connection with the robbery, during which five masked men posing as police officers allegedly stormed into Kardashian’s hotel suite.
The suspects allegedly made off with valuables worth at least $6 million, including a diamond engagement ring given to Kardashian by her then-husband Kanye West. That ring alone was said to be worth about $4 million.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
A 5-story residential building in Solomyanskyi district which was heavily damaged by a Russian airstrike on July 4, 2025 in Kyiv, Ukraine. /Serhii Masin/Anadolu via Getty Images
(LONDON) — Russia launched its largest drone attack of the war on Ukraine overnight into Wednesday, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, with 741 aerial attack vehicles used in the bombardment.
Ukraine’s air force said in a post to Telegram that Russia launched 728 drones — a mix of attack drones and decoys — and 13 missiles into the country overnight, with the northwestern Volyn region and its city of Lutsk the main targets.
The air force said 711 of the drones were shot down or otherwise neutralized, with seven missiles also intercepted. Impacts were recorded in at least four locations, the air force said.
Zelenskyy said the “massive” attack represented “the highest number of aerial targets in a single day.” The president framed the assault as another signal from Moscow that President Vladimir Putin is not invested in U.S.-led efforts to end the war, which began with Russia’s full-scale invasion of its neighbor in February 2022.
Damage was reported in the Dnipro, Zhytomyr, Kyiv, Kirovohrad, Mykolaiv, Sumy, Kharkiv, Khmelnytskyi, Cherkasy and Chernihiv regions, Zelenskyy said.
“This is a telling attack,” Zelenskyy continued. “It comes precisely at a time when so many efforts have been made to achieve peace, to establish a ceasefire, and yet only Russia continues to rebuff them all.”
“This is yet another proof of the need for sanctions — biting sanctions against oil, which has been fueling Moscow’s war machine with money for over three years of the war,” he wrote. “Secondary sanctions on those who buy this oil and thereby sponsor killings.”
“Our partners know how to apply pressure in a way that will force Russia to think about ending the war, not launching new strikes,” Zelenskyy said. “Everyone who wants peace must act.”
In Poland — which borders Ukraine to its west — the Armed Forces Operational Command said in a post to X that the Russian strikes prompted Polish and allied aircraft to be scrambled.
“Duty fighter pairs have been scrambled and ground-based air defense and radar reconnaissance systems have reached the highest state of readiness,” the command wrote in a post to X.
Two hours later, the command issued a new statement noting that the forces had been stood down “due to the reduced threat of Russian missile strikes.”
Russia’s massed drone and missile attack targeted “the infrastructure of military airfields,” the Russian Defense Ministry said in a post to Telegram, claiming that “all designated targets were hit.”
Ukraine continued its own cross-border attacks into Russia overnight, with the Defense Ministry in Moscow saying in a post to Telegram that its forces downed 86 Ukrainian drones overnight. Four drones were intercepted over the Moscow region, the ministry said.
Artem Korenyako, the press secretary for Russia’s Federal Air Transport Agency, said in a post to Telegram that flight restrictions were temporarily put in place at Sheremetyevo Airport in Moscow.
The latest Russian barrage comes amid escalating aerial cross-border attacks by Moscow. June saw a new monthly record for the number of long-range drones and missiles launched into Ukraine — 5,438 drones and 239 missiles — according to figures published by the Ukrainian air force.
Despite the trend toward larger and more frequent strikes, President Donald Trump’s administration last week confirmed it had frozen the shipment of some air defense and precision guided weapons that were on track to be sent to Ukraine, citing concerns about U.S. stockpiles.
Among the munitions held up were interceptor missiles for Ukraine’s Patriot surface-to-air systems, which have proven invaluable in Kyiv’s defense against Russian drones and — in particular — ballistic missiles.
On Tuesday, Trump told reporters he did not know who ordered the freeze. “I don’t know, why don’t you tell me?” the president responded when asked who was responsible.
One U.S. official told ABC News that officials are analyzing which weapons should be sent to Ukraine by using a stoplight chart — designating specific systems with red, yellow or green status. Red status suggests that U.S. supply of a particular munition is dangerously low, the official said.
Zelenskyy said Tuesday he had instructed his defense officials to “intensify all contacts with the American side” on the issue of continued military aid.
“This primarily concerns air defense, as well as all other elements of supplies from America,” the president said in a post to social media. “This is critical aid, on which the saving of lives of our people and the defense of Ukrainian cities and villages depend,” he said.
“I expect results from these contacts in the near future, and in particular, we are preparing meeting formats for our teams — both military and political — this week,” Zelenskyy said.
ABC News’ Anne Flaherty, Luis Martinez, Hannah Demissie, Will Gretsky and Joe Simonetti contributed to this report.
