Trump shares image of himself as pope (PHOTO)
US President Donald Trump has posted an AI-generated image of himself in papal attire, just days after joking about becoming the next pope. The image, shared on his Truth Social platform on Saturday, depicts Trump in white papal robes, a gold crucifix, and a mitre, with his right hand raised in a traditional papal gesture.
The post follows comments Trump made earlier this week to reporters. 'I'd like to be pope, that would be my number one choice,' he said in response to questions about potential successors to Pope Francis, who died on April 21. He went on to praise Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York as 'very good,' though Vatican observers note that the election of an American pope is unlikely.
The president and First Lady Melania Trump attended Pope Francis' funeral in Rome on April 26, which marked his first international trip since returning to office in January.
The AI-generated image sparked mixed reactions online. Some users found it humorous, while others criticized it as inappropriate, accusing Trump of mocking the death of the late pope.
The Vatican has confirmed that the papal conclave to elect a new pope will begin on May 8, with cardinals from around the world convening in the Sistine Chapel to vote in secrecy.
Trump and Pope Francis have a history of verbal clashes, especially over immigration and social issues. During his second term, Trump introduced strict immigration policies, including mass deportations, which drew criticism from the Vatican.
In a letter to US Catholic bishops this year, Pope Francis called the crackdown a 'major crisis' that harms the dignity of migrants, and warned against portraying undocumented people as criminals.
Their tensions go back to 2016, when Pope Francis said anyone who builds walls instead of bridges is 'not Christian' – widely seen as a swipe at Trump's border wall. Trump called the remark 'disgraceful' and accused the Mexican government of using the Argentine-born pope as a 'pawn.'
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Russia Today
10 hours ago
- Russia Today
Prof. Schlevogt's Compass No. 18: You are fired! Five fatal flaws forge Trump's fall
'The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves.' — William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar At his Resolute Desk, Trump sits like a force of nature — waging war, bending markets, and crushing dissent with a single gesture. He doesn't follow rules; he rewrites them. The world's on edge, all eyes on him. He doesn't blink. He dominates. One man. One will. Total disruption. But step past the drama, and a different picture emerges: beneath the surface, fault lines are running deep, primed to rupture. The final reckoning? Trump's presidency is headed for failure. These are the Fateful Five: the interconnected weaknesses that spell his likely downfall — a web of vulnerability captured in the Five F-Framework (see Figure 1). US President Donald John Trump has often shown the right political instincts – seeking to end conflicts, challenging entrenched ideologies, and pushing back on progressive social agendas. More than once, he has acted with defiant bravado – doing what he believes is right, even in the face of mainstream opposition. Breaking decades of deadlock, he met North Korea's leader. Undeterred by fierce criticism, he engaged Russia's president Putin – isolated in the West over Ukraine and alleged election meddling. Meanwhile, he boldly bulldozed 'progressive' diversity policies – which are spiritually, morally, and socially corrosive and truly regressive – braving the shrieking fury of woke inquisitors, their relentless pitchfork brigades, and the ever-aggrieved cancel mob. Yet Trump's boldness often slips into hubris – excessive pride that fuels overconfidence, blinds him to acute limits and warnings, and puts ego above the common good. It shows in his underestimation of global conflicts (like in Ukraine and the Middle East), attacks on allies and institutions (notably NATO), and fixation on flashy prestige projects (like the US–Mexico Border Wall). Craving adulation, Trump chases image over substance and, driven by a mercurial temperament, governs by impulse. Pride, arrogance, narcissism, and impulsiveness can make a leader dangerously vulnerable. The TACO label–Trump Always Chickens Out–may have been floated to bait him into proving his toughness, though this is speculative. Regardless, that jab may well have nudged him toward a radical and fateful choice: striking Iran unprovoked, despite unequivocal CIA and UN evidence that Tehran possessed no nuclear weapons. Trump's massive ego makes him easy prey for flattery. Before the 2025 NATO summit, the US commander in chief eagerly circulated a glowing message from the alliance' secretary general Mark Rutte. The consummate 'Trump whisperer' praised Donald's Iran strike as 'truly extraordinary, and something no one else dared to do', assuring his friend that he 'will achieve something NO American president in decades could get done', and cheering that 'Europe is going to pay in a BIG way' – never mind that Rutte, a European himself, would help foot the bill as a taxpayer. Even the most powerful leaders have typically deemed it necessary to cloak their ambitions in moral reasons to gain legitimacy, unify people, rally support, and ease resistance – like Julius Caesar framing his conquest of Gaul as a civilizing mission. Fast forward centuries to Napoleon who sold his wars as fights for liberty – even as he built an empire. Consider his famous call urging troops to champion the Italian people: 'You will go to fight for the liberty of the peoples of Italy, to free them from the chains of their tyrants.' Though arguably lacking the stature of a Caesar or Napoleon, President Trump often bypasses morality, propriety, and basic decency – ethically unmoored, he leans instinctively on the logic of 'might makes right.' Classic proof: In February 2025, he proposed turning Gaza – a densely populated place he, with striking disregard for human suffering, described as a 'demolition site' – into a US-run 'Riviera' without Palestinians. Trump casually shrugged off the unprovoked, US-backed Israeli attack on Iran in June 2025 as just 'two kids in a schoolyard.' He cynically reduced a deadly, high-stakes war – one which threatened world peace and risked unravelling the global economy – into a trivial, harmless spat. Remarkably, he cast himself as a neutral referee and peacemaker-in-wait, feigning detachment while watching the roughhousing – never mind that America had handed one kid the stick. In a 2020 tweet, Trump slammed the International Criminal Court – a body probing genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity – as a 'kangaroo court' and 'illegitimate.' After the ICC probed Israeli PM Netanyahu for alleged war crimes in Gaza, Trump hit back in 2025 – first slapping harsh sanctions on the ICC Chief Prosecutor, then, in a historic escalation, targeting four sitting judges. In 2018, Trump refused to visit a war cemetery, reportedly dismissing fallen US soldiers as 'losers' and 'suckers' – a striking example of disrespect and poor judgment. By putting power above principle, he sacrifices ethos – the trust derived from perceived moral integrity – which is a crucial tool of persuasion. His blunt style, admired by his base as authentic, fuels opponents' claims of tyranny, rekindling fears from the days of the American Revolution and eroding America's soft power. Against this backdrop, Trump's stunt of circulating an AI image of himself crowned – predictably provoking blistering backlash from democracy advocates – was hardly helpful. His raw, say-what-you-think style lacks the subtle finesse that refined leadership demands – a finesse that classical Chinese strategists famously, yet controversially, saw in dissimulation and other forms of artful deception. Paradoxically, Trump's brash candor and outspokenness – often bordering on naïveté – stands in sharp contrast to another of his trademark habits. Notably, Trump is a historic 'outliar', possessing a rare gift for alternative interpretations of truth, never letting facts stand in the way of a good story. His radical tactic of strategic truth adjustment – aptly called firehosing – bombards audiences with repeated falsehoods to drown out facts. Unlike subtle fake heading, firehosing is blunt and easily exposed. Case in point: The Washington Post tracked 30,573 false or misleading claims made by Trump in his first term – about 21 a day, and climbing. Short-term gains come at a steep cost. Sidelining logos – logical reasoning based on facts, not fiction – Trump is forced to lean hard on his last remaining persuasion tool: pathos – appealing to the audience's emotions – stoking fear of unchecked immigration, economic doom, and national decay to fire up his base. Trump's relentless wielding of pathos lies at the heart of his cunning, divisive populist playbook: he casts himself as a hero of 'the people' battling 'the elites,' but banks on hollow promises, sham fixes, and the emotional bait of feigned compassion. True leaders unify; Trump divides – as polarizer-in-chief, he unquestionably backs powerful special interests like the Israel and arms lobby, while routinely vilifying the vulnerable. Trump's zealous quest for an imperial presidency and American restoration splinters strategic focus and coherence and engenders a chaotic juggling act. The US president's scattershot approach spreads him thin across domestic crises and global flashpoints, risking failure everywhere – worsened by the fog of vague, half-baked initiatives, such as 'Build the Wall' and 'Drain the Swamp'. At times, he goes full shotgun – epitomized in the record-breaking flurry of 26 executive orders on day one of term two: scrapping climate pacts, overhauling immigration, narrowing gender rights, targeting civil servants, and pardoning 1,500 Capitol rioters. Curiously, Trump pairs this tireless multi-tasking with a cinematic jump-cut style, dropping the ball when challenges mount. Once his brash promise to end the Ukraine war in 24 hours fell flat, the 47th president slammed on the brakes and made a sharp, unexpected pivot – upending global trade and subsequently targeting Iran. His notorious audacity in flouting rules oddly contrasts with unlikely timidity: Think TACO again. For Trump, leadership is just the art of the deal. His dominant logic is flawed: he treats politics like real estate – centered on bargaining, branding, short-term wins, zero-sum games, and risky bets. Prioritizing transactions over relations, he ignores the complex human stakes at play. Through his peculiar lens, the New York mogul is spotting real estate-style opportunities, remarkably, in the political arena: dreaming not of peace in Gaza but a Riviera, and viewing a North Korean beach not as a geopolitical flashpoint but luxury property in waiting. Trump did not just see real estate deals in politics – he saw a full-blown business portfolio. To some, he played the role of a Godfather in the White House, deploying extortion tactics straight from the Mafia playbook. Consider this: Trump preyed on Ukraine's vulnerability and desperation for US military support to seize critical minerals and resources. In a brazen twist, he demanded payment for aid already delivered – like invoicing someone years after giving them a Christmas gift. Just as a sports coach chasing wins, masters of the political game require a smart, balanced roster. But Trump prizes loyalty over competence – elevating partisan firebrands, such as the political strategist Steve Bannon, while sidelining seasoned pros seen as wavering, such as FBI Director Comey – sacrificing effective governance for personal allegiance. Such favoritism echoes the infamous tale of Emperor Caligula, who allegedly planned to appoint his prized horse, Incitatus, as consul – rewarding loyalty over competence to mock the Senate and flaunt his absolute power. By surrounding himself with yes-men and shutting out dissenting voices, Trump traps himself in an echo chamber devoid of the diversity and checks essential for making creative, rational, fact-driven decisions. To make matters worse, Trump's outsized ego clashes even with loyalists, leading to public humiliations and bitter fallouts fueled by bruised pride and policy rifts. The casualty list is long: Sessions, Cohen, Bolton, Barr, Musk – all cast out, only to burst back onto the scene as staunch critics armed with insider secrets and thirst for revenge. Sharp minds steer clear, knowing that in Trump's orbit, loyalty is demanded but never securely returned. The damage from Trump's weak personal leadership is only compounded by his equally poor performance as an organizational architect. Unlike epochal leaders who built enduring institutional frameworks – think Napoleon's Code Civile – Trump's legacy so far boils down to a bold dismantling act, epitomized by Elon Musk's chainsaw ripping through the excess of labyrinthine bureaucracy. Tellingly, Trump seems to have skipped classes in Organizational Behavior – the study of workplace dynamics – to his detriment. Had he mastered it, he could have driven systemic change step-by-step – in a methodic and disciplined manner: sparking urgency, forging vision, and empowering execution. The US president would also have learned to meticulously calibrate transformation across key dimensions: purpose, substance, scope, scale, speed, style, and sequence. To illustrate: savvy change leaders are timing every single move with precision – fast for quick wins, slow for broad and lasting buy-in – and balance structural reforms with cultural shifts. In his haste and vaulting ambition, Trump mistook force for foresight – jamming every lever to the limit with no flight plan, no runway, and no brakes. He drove radical change at full throttle on all fronts, ignoring the gauges and redlining the engine – as if raw adrenaline alone could fly the plane. On his blind mission to the stars, POTUS 47 neglected the intricate immune system of a bureaucracy with its manifold ingenious ways of mounting resistance – from open defiance to slow-rolling to feigned compliance that quietly sabotages reform behind a smile. Need a masterclass in bureaucratic resistance? Just watch Yes, Prime Minister. Notably, Trump seemed oblivious to the ratchet effect – a dynamic in which actions, like a one-way mechanism, are far easier to take than to undo. It is a cautionary principle: once momentum takes hold – whether in administrative systems or government policies – reversal is rarely simple. This insight sharpens awareness of how hard legacies are to unwind – and advises prudence before locking oneself into moves that resist reversal. To illustrate the trap: Trump's tariffs on China, meant to protect US industry, proved politically perilous to undo. Or Iran: once provoked, reconciliation proved far harder than escalation. In both cases, pulling the trigger was easy; climbing down, far harder – true to the adage, 'Some paths are easier to blaze than to backtrack.' Unclouded by ideology, Trump jolts politics with an innovative and results-driven mindset, defying orthodoxy and upending entrenched trends. Wielding power more like a chainsaw than a chisel, his sheer will cuts political noise and rips into the machinery of government with blunt force. The maverick and trickster favors personal engagement over formal channels – witness his direct talks with President Putin on Ukraine. With his seat-of-the-pants style and raw energy, he shatters long-standing barriers, but creates little lasting substance. Paradoxically, despite his pragmatism, Trump often operates in a vacuum – driven by wishful thinking and blind to the hard and dynamic realities of power: scarce economic resources, military constraints, geographic limitations, and institutional checks. Committing the fallacy of the last move, he gravely underestimates backlash from adversaries, such as tariff retaliation or military counterstrikes. Remember the time-tested truth: 'Every battle plan is perfect until first contact with the enemy.' Trump's shaky grasp of realpolitik – pragmatic power politics grounded in shifting realities – leaves him ill-equipped for complex global challenges. His radical shifts in strategy, tone, and messaging betray a deafness to the nuance that serious statecraft demands. Trump's erratic style is laid bare in his wild policy swings and theatrical dealings with friends and foes alike. Undermining the very structures that long projected America's power and cemented its political, economic, and military might, Trump voluntarily surrendered key levers of dominance that his adversaries could have only dreamt of prying loose. He rattled NATO by questioning core defense commitments, stunned allies with abrupt troop pullouts from Germany, Syria, and Afghanistan, and treated US forces in Asia as bargaining chips – demanding steep payments from South Korea and Japan. Wounding a friend marks a stunning break even from the most basic pagan maxim – 'help your friends, harm your enemies' – a code long fundamentally transcended by Christian ethics. Trump's North Korea approach veered from threats of 'fire and fury' and mocking Kim Jong-un as 'Little Rocket Man,' to praising him as a 'very talented' leader and crossing into North Korea with a smile and handshake. The dime-spinning showmanship grabbed headlines – but yielded nothing: North Korea kept its nukes. Forged in the high-stakes world of real estate, Trump brings a gambler's instinct to politics – gutsy, fearless, and drawn to spectacular all-in bets that others would avoid. But he often chases outsized rewards while ignoring long-term risks. Trump's 2018 unilateral withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal alienated allies and fueled tensions – bringing Iran closer to the bomb. His sweeping trade war with China that year backfired, straining global supply chains and hurting American farmers without a clear victory. The 2025 US attack on Iran escalated diplomatic failure into open conflict. Trump's move to relocate the US embassy to Jerusalem epitomizes short-term brinkmanship over long-term strategy and consensus-building. Breaking decades of precedent, it fired up his evangelical and pro-Israel base but sparked regional tensions and sidelined the US as a broker in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. At times, Trump shows caution, backpedaling after hallmark, bet-the-house gambits – canceling tariffs or recasting himself as an impartial arbiter and kind-hearted peacemaker after ruthlessly igniting conflicts and backing one side – earning the moniker 'daddy' during a respite in the 2025 Israel-Iran war. Yet a moment may come when the destructive forces and chaos he unleashed spirals beyond control, and the former host of The Apprentice finds himself outmatched – not as the boss, but as the Sorcerer's Apprentice, forced to cry: 'Master! Help! The evil spirits I have summoned will not be quiet!' – only to hear in reply: 'You're fired!' 'It's the economy, stupid' – coined in Clinton's 1992 campaign to spotlight the voters' top concern – remains timeless. Yet Trump seems deaf to this enduring truth. From the start, Trump shattered economic orthodoxy with his Make America Great mantra, favoring shock interventions from the White House over steady multilateral cooperation and gradual consensus-building at home and abroad. Yet mirroring his shaky grasp of realpolitik, he was weak in realwirtschaft – often gambling on wishful outcomes, underestimating the hard forces shaping the real economy. Over time, Trump doubled down on destructive economic nationalism and selective deregulation – pursuing radical decoupling from China and showering incentives on US manufacturing. He ramped up tariffs on European and Asian imports, reigniting global trade wars and driving up inflation at home. Undermining global climate efforts, he unleashed fossil fuel expansion by gutting environmental rules and opening federal lands to drilling. In 2025, he signed the beautifully alliterate One Big Beautiful Bill – a sweeping deficit-financed economic package bundling infrastructure spending, tax cuts, and industrial subsidies – hailed as bold stimulus by supporters, slammed by critics as reckless populism. In his most audacious economic gambit yet, Trump vowed to scrap income taxes for most Americans and replace the IRS with an 'External Revenue Service' bankrolled by sweeping import tariffs. Trump's plan grabs headlines but reeks of recklessness – overhyping tariffs, burdening consumers, fueling inflation, inviting global backlash, and eroding fiscal credibility; a crowd-pleaser doomed by economic realities and glaring policy contradictions – like aiming to tame inflation by stoking it with tariffs. This reveals the deeper flaw of the overreaching leader: by putting politics above economics and sidestepping fundamental economic principles, he triggers toxic fallout that can swiftly unravel their reign. Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's defiance of economic orthodoxy – slashing interest rates amid soaring inflation – ignited a lira freefall and an inflation inferno, proving that fighting fire with gasoline burns fast and deep. Flouting economic fundamentals in a policy blitz can precipitate a swift downfall – U.K. prime minister Liz Truss's radical push for large unfunded tax cuts shattered market trust in the economic competency and policies of her government and sent her premiership crashing in just 44 days. At the end, we may ask, 'Was this the rise of a colossus – or the long prologue to a fall?' Trump embodies the quintessential American can-do spirit – the very driving force that vaulted the land of opportunity to global preeminence, drawing the best and brightest for generations. Yet unchecked strength in excess – untempered by moderation, prudence, or equity – becomes weakness that, if uncorrected and compounded by other flaws, engenders derailment. Trump's impulsiveness and unpredictability, personalized rule, disregard for diplomatic balance, and penchant for undercutting institutions evoke not Bismarck's cautious statecraft, but the apparent reckless self-sabotage of Wilhelm II – reportedly a mercurial man whose very excesses and volatility ensured he would be Germany's last emperor. Never forget: every choice carries a price – nothing comes without a cost. If you lean toward the ominous and sinister, consider this chilling conspiracy theory: Trump may have been elevated not to succeed, but to fail – spectacularly. His rise may have been engineered as a political vaccine, paving the way for a calculated liberal restoration, swiftly reversing his agenda and quietly entrenching progressive rule over countless electoral cycles. By similar conspiratorial logic, Hitler's ascent to absolute power could be seen as a dark gambit – to inoculate the German people against authoritarianism, militant nationalism, and anti-Judaism, and to catalyze the creation of Israel. Both, perhaps, were dialectical masterstrokes – premeditated catharses, with doomed, fateful figureheads cast as sacrifices to reshape history through fire. Even in his unhinged state, Trump could still, in theory, learn from past missteps and change course – but the odds are vanishingly slim. His five fatal flaws are poised to seal his fate. As Oscar Wilde observed, 'All great men are gifted with destruction.' The Apprentice star seemed to have peaked on the first day in office; his undoing may take multiple forms, each varying in drama and pace. Trump might come down 'not with a bang but a whimper,' reduced to a lame-duck after a midterm humiliation of his party. More spectacular exits include second-term impeachment or post-presidency criminal conviction. Or perhaps no rupture at all – just a legacy of failure, etched in history not for triumph, but for squandered power. To conclude, Donald Trump is such stuff as tragedies are made on. The man can be compared to the typical protagonist in classical Attic tragedy – not a pure hero or a true villain, but a flawed, elevated figure, whose all-too-human weaknesses drive his fall, echoing the narrative arc of classical Attic tragedy. Inspiring pity through his suffering and fear that his fate could be ours, the tragic hero typically begins noble and strong, but caught in a web of dark forces and blinded by pride or misled by a fateful error, engineers his own downfall – seeing clearly and recognizing the truth only when it is too late. Longfellow's apt warning echoes like a tragic chorus: 'Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad.'
Russia Today
2 days ago
- Russia Today
Putin respects US once again
US President Donald Trump has said that Russian President Vladimir Putin has regained respect for America, whose international standing was damaged by the previous administration. Trump was responding to comments made by Putin during his visit to Belarus on Friday, where the Russian leader described the US president as a 'courageous man.' 'Vladimir Putin made some very nice statements today,' Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, adding that such remarks would have been impossible under former President Joe Biden. 'He respects our country again. He didn't respect it a year ago, I can tell you that,' Trump said, claiming that Chinese President Xi Jinping and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un also now respect the US since his return to the White House. 'We had a president that was incompetent. We had bad people circulating around this desk – this beautiful, resolute desk. They had, I guess, evil intentions,' Trump said. He has repeatedly described his predecessor's foreign policy as weak and damaging to America's global reputation, arguing that the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza would not have erupted under his leadership. Speaking to reporters in Minsk, Putin said he holds 'deep respect' for Trump and praised him for overcoming numerous challenges, including surviving an assassination attempt last year. He added that he believes Trump has been 'sincerely seeking' to help broker an end to the Ukraine conflict. Trump has revived direct contacts with Moscow, which were cut off during the Biden administration, and has held five phone calls with Putin since returning to office in January.
Russia Today
2 days ago
- Russia Today
Moscow flags flaws in NATO's defense planning
NATO expects a military conflict with Russia within the next five years yet plans to raise defense spending to 5% of GDP only by 2035, a timeline that Russian Foreign Ministry official Vladislav Maslennikov pointed out as contradictory during a Valdai Discussion Club session on Friday. At a summit held in The Hague this week, members of the US-led bloc pledged to increase defense spending to 5% of GDP by 2035, citing what they described as the 'long-term threat posed by Russia to Euro-Atlantic security.' US President Donald Trump, who has consistently pressed European allies to take on more of the defense burden, welcomed the deal as a 'monumental win.' Maslennikov, who heads up the ministry's Department for European Cooperation questioned how the bloc justifies a distant spending target while simultaneously anticipating a near-term confrontation. 'It's not just the logic that's flawed — the arithmetic doesn't add up either,' Maslennikov said. 'If the public is being told that Russia is expected to launch an attack by 2030, then why is the European Union only aiming to be fully prepared by 2035? It doesn't make much sense,' he argued. Another challenge NATO faces on defense policy is the lack of a unified stance among member states regarding dialogue with Russia, Maslennikov believes. While some EU nations see engagement as necessary, others advocate for cutting ties with Russia entirely. 'Some want to rule out any possibility of future dialogue with us, while others acknowledge that, sooner or later, constructive engagement will be necessary – after all, geography cannot be changed,' Maslennikov said. According to the diplomat, the so-called 'Russian threat' is a 'highly convenient construct for NATO.' Moscow believes reversing this narrative will be difficult and it has no intention of making the first move toward restoring constructive engagement. 'Much will depend on how our relationship with the United States evolves,' he stressed. Russian President Vladimir Putin dismissed the rhetoric about the threat posed by Russia to NATO as an 'inconceivable lie' used by Western governments to justify tax increases and the diversion of public funds to the military-industrial complex. Speaking at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum last week, Putin warned that this kind of military posturing only escalates global tensions while diverting resources from social and economic needs.
