Cardinal David not amused by Trump’s pope image antics

MANILA, Philippines — Kalookan’s Pablo Virgilio Cardinal David was among those not amused by United States President Donald Trump’s artificial intelligence (AI)-generated image of himself as a pope.

Trump’s image as pope was reportedly shared last Friday on his Truth Social site, and was later reposted by the White House in its official X account.

The image was posted days before the 133 cardinal-electors are scheduled to start their papal conclave on May 7 to elect the next pope, to replace Pope Francis who died last April 21.

To which Cardinal David, who is also the president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), replied, “NOT FUNNY, SIR.”

In his Facebook account, the Kalookan prelate also posted a thread of translations of the sentence “It’s not funny, Sir” in different languages to let Trump know that there are people in the world who did not like the antic.

In Tagalog, it was translated to “Hindi nakakatawa, Ginoo.”

“The following AI-generated photo was posted by the US President himself, a few days after he attended the funeral of Pope Francis and while the Catholic world is still mourning. With all due respect to his office and to the American people, we’d like him to know it’s not funny.”