Republicans defend president after Pope Leo attack, Jesus Christ post
Washington: While some acknowledged they were disturbed by Trump’s attack on the pope and his comparison of himself to Jesus, Republican leaders say they have no concerns about President Donald Trump’s mental health and stability.
As they returned to Washington after spring break on Tuesday (US time), this byline asked more than a dozen Republican senators if they had concerns about the president’s temperament after his latest outbursts on social media.
These included threatening to destroy the entire civilization of Iran, attacking Pope Leo as a radical left sympathizer who was “weak on crime,” and publishing an AI illustration (which he later deleted) depicting him as Jesus Christ healing the sick.
“The president is an enthusiastic person and he never backs down,” said Josh Hawley, a Republican senator from Missouri. “I have never seen him hold back in person or in public.”
Hawley said popes and U.S. presidents often have different views. “It is part of the church office to try to sneak into controversial issues and try to apply the church’s teachings. Sometimes I agree with them, sometimes I don’t. Sometimes presidents agree, sometimes they don’t. I don’t think the pope will be deterred.”
Others pushed back when asked if they were concerned about Trump’s mental health. “No. Where did this come from?” replied Bill Cassidy, a Republican senator and physician from Louisiana.
Republican senator Ted Cruz of Texas dismissed the question and criticized the media’s tolerance for former president Joe Biden’s physical and mental decline.
“This is a real indictment of the media that I bet you didn’t ask this for four years about Joe Biden, who clearly has dementia and can barely tie his shoes,” Cruz said. “Now that President Trump is racking up historic victories, the media has suddenly decided to raise ridiculous questions.”
Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy said he wasn’t concerned about Trump’s stability but encouraged him to ignore the pope.
“I don’t mean that in a bad way,” Kennedy said. “He’s a good man and an important person and all that. He has an opinion like everyone else and he has the right to share it; that doesn’t mean you should comment on it.”
Senators and other top Republicans were generally willing to give Trump the benefit of the doubt over his controversial posts, including a deleted photo showing Jesus Christ in his white robe tending to a sick man.
“He said he was a doctor,” said Rick Scott, a Republican senator from Florida. “No, I’m not concerned about the president’s mental health.”
On Monday, Trump said he thought the illustration showed him as a doctor and “was about the Red Cross,” even though there was no obvious Red Cross-related imagery in the image.
House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters that he spoke to Trump as soon as he saw the Jesus illustration and said it was not received the way the president intended.
“He agreed and withdrew it, it was the right thing to do,” Johnson said. “He explained how he saw it; I don’t think he ever thought it was disrespectful.”
Others were more critical. Susan Collins, a Republican senator from Maine who has a tense relationship with Trump, said his remarks about the pope disturbed millions of Catholics and people of faith around the world.
“Popes do not campaign for office and are not driven by American politics, and the president should stop treating the pope like a political rival,” Collins told X. “He is the leader of the Catholic Church and speaks on matters of faith, not partisan politics.”
Trump has repeatedly denied having any health problems and boasted about his success on cognitive tests. The White House has previously described him as someone with unmatched energy and sharpness, especially compared to his predecessor.
Asked last week what he would say to critics who think his mental health should be examined, Trump said: “I haven’t heard of it, but if that’s the case, you’re going to have to have more people like me because our country had been screwed for so many years in business, in everything, until I came along.”
But some Democrats question Trump’s leadership capacity. Representative Jamie Raskin introduced a bill on Tuesday (US time) that would begin the process of impeaching him using the 25th Amendment to the US Constitution.
Even though the bill has virtually no chance of success, Democrats are using the opportunity to pressure Republicans to rein in Trump’s excesses.
“This president has shown that he is truly dangerous,” said Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren. “A man who stands up in the name of the United States of America and threatens to destroy an entire civilization is a danger to our country.”
Richard Blumenthal, a Democratic senator from Connecticut, said the byline was less concerned with Trump’s mental health than with “whether he’s actually in touch with what’s going on inside and outside America.”
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Michael Koziol is the North America correspondent for The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald. He is a former Sydney editor, Sun-Herald deputy editor and a federal political correspondent in Canberra.Connect with: X or email.
