Trump's Messianic Meme That Rocked the Internet

By now, you’ve probably seen the meme that rocked the internet today. I have… and here are my reactions.

I am heartsick, I am angry, and I am very, very concerned. More on my response in a minute.

If you haven’t seen the meme, it depicts President Trump dressed in resplendent red and white robes, laying a healing hand on a sick man while supernatural powers emanate from him. Meanwhile, awestruck observers appear spellbound and angelic beings resembling soldiers hover overhead.

There is also a large American flag on the left, the Statue of Liberty on the right, and both a fighter jet and a bald eagle in flight.

O.K., now that you “get the picture”, here is my take for what it’s worth.

No matter what President Trump’s most diehard apologists say, there is no way to interpret the meme other than to say it portrays him as a Christlike figure. No, not as a Christ-follower, but as an actual Messiah. Yes, the apostles were given special healing powers (Matthew 10:1; Luke 9:1; et al); but it was the Holy Spirit working in and through them that did the actual healing… and I seriously doubt that light was radiating from their hands or that angels were visibly ascending and descending while it was happening.

Simply put, God does not share His glory with anyone. He made that plainly apparent in the first and second commandments when He told the Israelites not to have any other gods before Him nor to make any graven images of false gods (see Exodus 20:1-6).

And so, the White House sycophant or freelance artist that used AI to create this blasphemous meme should be trembling in his or her boots as we speak… as should President Donald J. Trump, who posted it on his personal Truth Social account this morning.

That is why I am heartsick – and more than a little angry – because I truly love and support President Trump. No, he wasn’t my first choice (or my second, third, or fourth) in the 2016 Republican primary, but once he captured the GOP nomination, I voted for him that November… and I did likewise in 2020. And after initially supporting Gov. Ron DeSantis in 2024, I cast yet another ballot for Mr. Trump in that year’s general election because I approved of the vast majority of his policies – and I also vigorously opposed the ones championed by Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and the rest of the radically progressive Democrat Party.

Am I tired of – and often embarrassed by – President Trump’s childish tweets, rants and raves? You betcha! And I have also been a vocal critic of his personal behavior while being an even more staunch supporter of his public policies.

Yes, Virginia, it is possible to do both and still be a party loyalist let alone a patriotic American.

But here is why I am so deeply concerned. This morning, I posted the meme on my Facebook page with the following comment: “Mr. President, this is blasphemy.” I then added #Repent.

I shared the post on dozens of different group pages that I am a member of and the vast majority of people who responded agreed with my take on the matter. However, there have been – and continue to be – a substantial number of respondents who have gone absolutely berserk, calling me every name in the book while questioning my patriotism, my conservatism, and my Christianity.

In their minds, you simply cannot separate the two issues: supporting President Trump and his policies while reserving the right (and the responsibility) to call him out when his outlandish personal behavior crosses the line. Instead, they continue to come up with one explanation after another to excuse what should be universally condemned.

That’s called denial. It’s also called enabling… and neither is helpful. Not to the person at fault nor to the person who is complicit by covering things up.

My friends, this whole episode has revealed a very troubling trend in America and specifically, in the Republican Party. To his credit, President Trump almost single-handedly resurrected the GOP after eight years of Barack Obama (and two lackluster presidential nominees in John McCain and Mitt Romney). And yes, he has done a lot of good things in both his first and second terms such as securing the border, nominating conservative justices to the Supreme Court, eliminating DEI, and making America energy independent again. However, he is not infallible and like every president before him, he has made more than his share of mistakes, big and small.

There is no shame in admitting that and doing so doesn’t mean that you are a traitor to the cause. On the contrary, irrational, hero-worshipping, cultish thinking is what gave us every misguided leader from Charles Manson to Jim Jones. It is also what led Germany and Japan to follow Adolf Hitler and Emperor Hirohito over the proverbial cliff into World War II.

For the record, no, I didn’t just compare President Trump to any of those historical figures. I actually think he is a good man but with a world-class ego. However, I did compare their disciples – who deified the men they followed to the point where they could not bring themselves to admit that their leader was flawed – to Trump supporters who refuse to even entertain the idea.

True patriots, true Republicans, and true friends of the 47th President of the United States will not only continue to pray for him, but also lovingly and firmly confront him when he is wrong. And make no mistake about it, this was a big blunder because upsetting and potentially alienating the GOP’s base on the religious right could have long-lasting repercussions, affecting both this year’s midterms and the 2028 presidential election.

Editor's Note: Some of President Trump's most ardent defenders have said that the meme simply portrayed him as a Christian man that God is using to heal America. Even if that were the true intention of the meme, why run the risk of being misinterpreted by superimposing President Trump's head on Jesus's body (or dressing him like Christ and surrounding him with fawning bystanders and angelic hosts)? At the very least, it was politically tone-deaf to post the meme and someone in President Trump's inner circle had to know - or should have known - that evangelical Christians and Catholics alike would find it deeply offensive.