MAGA Wars: New rift divides Trump supporters over clash with Pope Leo XIV and president's Jesus-like image

The dispute over war against the Iranian regime has opened up another fracture within the MAGA movement, pitting conservative Catholics against Catholic Trump supporters and generating tensions between those who back the pope Leo XIV and those who see him as an obstacle to the "America First" agenda.

The conflict escalated after Trump criticized the pope on Truth Social, accusing him of being "weak on crime and terrible for foreign policy," and later claimed he didn't want "a pope that's gonna say that it's OK [for Iran] to have a nuclear weapon."

The situation escalated further when Trump released an A.I.-generated image in which he is depicted as Jesus, which provoked strong reactions within the MAGA movement.

Conservatives revolt

Megyn Kelly harshly criticized Trump during her SiriusXM show, calling the president's image as Jesus of "blasphemous, by any definition of the word."

"It's completely inappropriate and he knows it," Kelly said.

Trump later clarified that the controversial A.I.-generated image did not depict him as Jesus, but as a doctor healing a sick person, surrounded by patriotic and military symbols.

Kelly also spoke of the confrontation between Trump and Pope Leo XIV: "President Trump has picked up a new feud with Pope Leo XIV. ... I will be the first to tell you the pope has been critical of this war. ... And as he's been critical of it, it occured to me that it was just a matter of time before President Trump would lash out at him, and he did. It wasn't great, it was predictable. No Catholic loves this, but you could see it coming."

Marjorie Taylor Greene, the former Republican representative from Georgia who has recently distanced herself from Trump, was blunt in a message posted on X. "On Orthodox Easter, President Trump attacked the Pope because the Pope is rightly against Trump's war in Iran and then he posted this picture of himself as if he is replacing Jesus. This comes after last week's post of his evil tirade on Easter and then threatening to kill an entire civilization."

Taylor Greene added: "It's more than blasphemy. It's an Antichrist spirit."

Commentator Candace Owens, a conspiracy theorist and longtime Trump supporter, has distanced herself from the president over the conflict with the Iranian regime.

After conservative commentator Graham Allen and author David J. Harris Jr. posted a nearly identical message on X, stating that they did not believe "the president intended to depict himself as Jesus," Owens responded by stating "their ideas are whatever the highest bidder wants their ideas to be," adding that this was called "political prostitution."

Megan Basham, author of the book "Shepherds for Sale" and culture reporter for the conservative outlet The Daily Wire, posted Monday on X: "I don’t know if the President thought he was being funny or if he is under the influence of some substance or what possible explanation he could have for this OUTRAGEOUS blasphemy."

"But he needs to take this down immediately and ask for forgiveness from the American people and then from God," she added.

Controversial English right-wing commentator Milo Yiannopoulos also reacted to the image of the president in X: "Oh hell no. We tolerated this kind of meme against our better judgment because he promised to save America and only when it was clear he didn’t actually think he was the Messiah. Why do I feel like Paula White did this to him, and to us? Pray for his soul. Pray for us all."