‘Deeply Offensive’: Karl Rove Condemns Trump Sharing an Image of Himself as Pope During Fox News Hit

Republican strategist Karl Rove condemned President Donald Trump during a Sunday night appearance on Fox News with host Trey Gowdy, calling his decision to post an image portraying himself as the Pope “deeply offensive to a great many people.”

The AI-generated image, which the president shared on social media on Saturday, followed a satirical tweet by Senator Lindsey Graham, who comedically floated the idea of Trump being elected Pope. The absurdity of this seemed lost on many who took the joke at face value.

“I don’t remember any talk about Canada, Greenland, the Pope, deporting U.S. citizens the night he was elected,” Gowdy posed to his guest as a lead in to a review of Trump’s first 100 days in office. Rove’s condemnation elicited predictable backlash from Trump on Truth Social.

“I don’t need to have Karl Rove of FoxNews to tell me what to do. The guy’s a total Loser who’s been wrong about almost everything!” wrote Trump.

“The important thing is that we elected him for a variety of reasons that were important. Inflation, the border, DEI, the military, respect for America. And things like, you know, just tweeting out a picture of you as the Pope,” Rove said. “It’s deeply offensive to a great many people.”

It’s not difficult to imagine the sheer outrage that would explode within conservative media if former President Barack Obama or Joe Biden were to share an image of themselves as the exalted leader of the Catholic Church, particularly as a conclave designed to select the next pope was about to begin.

Watch above via Fox News