Columnist Says Trump’s Deleted Photo and Clash With the Pope Were Missteps That Risk Alienating Catholic Supporters

A recent column in The American Spectator criticized two moves by President Donald Trump that the writer said were ill-advised and potentially harmful to his relationship with Catholic supporters and the broader Christian community. The columnist defended Trump against recent accusations of being 'satanic' by pointing to the president’s public religious gestures, including reaffirming the nation’s consecration as “one nation under God” during an “America Prays” initiative, publicly thanking the Virgin Mary for promoting peace and love, and inviting Americans to pray to the Blessed Virgin for “the end of war and for a new era of peace in Europe and throughout the world.”

Despite those gestures, the columnist said two actions in the same week amounted to strategic blunders. First was the publication of a photo that was broadly criticized and later deleted. The author described the image as neither funny nor harmless, calling it “stupid” and even “blasphemous,” and warned that offending Catholics—many of whom are staunch supporters of the president—was tactically dangerous. The column acknowledged that reactions among Catholics were mixed: some expressed great anger while others counseled prayer for the president.

Second was what the columnist characterized as an ill-advised public confrontation with the pope. The piece framed that dispute as more complex than the photo incident, noting that recent popes have sometimes frustrated conservative Catholics. The author observed, controversially, that “In recent times, perhaps no pontiff has caused conservative Catholics more grief than the late Francis (may God have him in His glory),” and suggested that many conservatives have chosen restraint—opting to pray rather than publicly refute papal statements on political matters.

The column drew historical comparisons to prior pontiffs, invoking John Paul II and Pope Paul VI. It pointed out that John Paul II, though a staunch opponent of communism and terrorism, nonetheless spent much of his papacy calling for peace, including in conflicts where some Christians might have regarded military action as morally justified. The writer argued that the current pope’s appeals for peace are consistent with that papal tradition, even as critics claim the pontiff unevenly emphasizes certain conflicts while downplaying other grave abuses, such as the persecution of Christians in parts of Africa or the violent actions of the Iranian regime.

The columnist attempted to strike a balance in assessing the two leaders’ positions. On one hand, the pope’s pursuit of peace through mediation and moral suasion was praised as legitimate and in keeping with papal practice. On the other, the writer defended aspects of Trump’s foreign policy objectives, including efforts to see an end to what he described as the ayatollahs’ regime in Iran, which the column blamed for domestic repression and global terrorist activity.

Beyond the immediate controversies, the piece made a broader political appeal: that Christians and those who value Judeo-Christian cultural foundations should seek unity at a delicate historical moment. The author warned that the “postmodern, anti-Christian left” has for years promoted social changes that many conservatives consider harmful, and argued that to reverse those trends, religious and cultural allies need to cooperate rather than exacerbate divisions.

To illustrate how religious satire has sometimes defused controversy rather than inflamed it, the columnist cited a 1970s Spanish anthology, God Is Joyful, containing post-Vatican II humor and cartoons by the satirist Mingote. Several cartoons were quoted to show that irreverence can be harmless if it is genuinely humorous: “No, dear, this talk of freedom of conscience is just to reassure modern people. When it comes to Heaven, in the end it’s us, the same old ones, who’ll go.” In another, a woman reads a headline and says, “Ever since they stopped using Latin, I don’t understand anything anymore.” The column’s larger message was that political actors should avoid needless provocations toward religious believers and the institutional church, because such flare-ups risk alienating constituencies and undermining opportunities for broader cooperation.