Trump’s posting even more AI-generated Trump-Jesus fan art

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Trump’s posting even more AI-generated Trump-Jesus fan art

Plus: what Werner Herzog thinks of the Trump penguin meme.

Plus: what Werner Herzog thinks of the Trump penguin meme.

You can’t spell “antichrist” without “AI”

Of all the things that would have fractured the religious right’s alliance with Donald Trump, it *would *be him posting an AI-generated image of himself styled as Jesus Christ, healing the sick and surrounded by heavenly angels — only hours after attacking Pope Leo XIV, no less. (As conservative commentator Rod Dreher, who attended JD Vance’s Catholic baptism, told The Wall Street Journal: “Not saying Trump is the Antichrist. But he’s radiating the spirit of Antichrist, no question.”) This time, it wasn’t the White House memelord army that had generated it. Trump admitted to reporters on Monday, while accepting a DoorDash delivery, that he’d posted the image to Truth Social. “I thought it was me as a doctor,” he said.

But X user S2_Underground discovered a curious thing: The image Trump posted wasn’t exactly new. A version of the AI-generated image had been initially posted by a MAGA influencer named Nick Adams back in February, but by the time it made its way to Trump’s feed, several odd transformations had occurred. The most notable one, which went viral, was that a soldier floating in the clouds had turned into a faceless, spiky-headed winged being that social media users immediately viewed as a demon. But there are several more subtle changes, too: Trump’s flag has more stars than the Adams one, the fighter jets look slightly off, the buildings in the background look blurrier, and everyone’s faces, including Trump’s, look more fearful and less benevolent. Plus, one man’s “VETERAN” hat turned into what my coworker Owen Grove described as “a ‘የቹ፪ጮጎል’ hat.”

So what happened between Adams’ post and Trump’s post? The memelords were tight-lipped, as always. But it’s well known that Trump has always had the final word on what ends up on his social media feeds, and the history of his presidencies is littered with examples of his advisers being unable to stop Trump from posting or reposting things he personally comes across. While the post has been deleted (rare!), it appears that anyone in the White House who’d be trying to stop Trump from posting *more *blasphemous images is failing to do so: On Wednesday morning, Trump posted yet another AI-generated image from a follower that depicted him and Jesus embracing in front of an American flag. “The Radical Left Lunatics might not like this,” he wrote, “but I think it is quite nice!!!”

DC’s hottest WHCD collabs are…

Here’s a terrible DC political journalism insider secret I’ve learned over the years: You can roughly gauge the health of a media company by the scale of its White House Correspondents’ Dinner-week event. If it’s scored an Ambassadors’ residence one year but downgrade to a “private reception” the next, that’s one sign. If it’s partnered with another outlet, they’re probably pooling resources. If it’s cohosting it with a tech company — an increasingly popular option — there’s probably a quiet agreement that the tech company is footing the bill.

Here’s some of my favorite media/tech collaborations I’ve heard about this cycle:

• On Thursday, YouTube, a very wealthy subsidiary of Google, and CSPAN, the public television station currently facing a financial crisis due to the rise of streaming services eating into cable profits, are cohosting a reception at Meridian House, a fabulous neoclassical mansion owned by the Meridian International Center. (For context, Meridian House is the dream wedding venue of DC social climbers.)

Washingtonianmagazine, a society publication that has long struggled with the same budget problems afflicting local media, is throwing its annual swanky Four Seasons shindig with the Embassy of Qatar, the petrostate with one of the highest GDP per capita. (Someonehas to pay for the free top-shelf whiskey.)

• Beehiiv, an upstart newsletter company and Substack competitor, is hosting a Friday reception at the Shinola store on 14th Street. Yes, drinks are next to the watches and notebooks.

• PubKey, the bitcoin-themed dive bar that’s also home to the Bitcoin Policy Institute, will play host to The Creative Coalition’s “RightToBearArts” annual gala fundraiser. Celebrity hosts include Michael Chiklis and Zachary Levi, and tickets start at $1,000.

• Not a tech company, but an eyebrow-raising one nonetheless: America250 has attached its name to the Motion Picture Association’s annual Friday party, per an invitation I viewed. Established by an act of Congress long before Trump entered politics, America250 was supposed to be a nonpartisan nonprofit for funding America’s 250th anniversary this year, but it has evolved into one of the numerous nonprofits used by corporate donors to curry favor with the second Trump administration. Last year, major companies like Amazon, Oracle, Meta, Coinbase, and Palantir became America250 sponsors right before Trump’s controversial military parade (held on Trump’s birthday).

• Granted, more egregious nonprofit donation vehicles have supplanted America250, such as the presidential library fund, the East Wing ballroom fund, and Freedom 250, which has drawn scrutiny for its opaque donation structure and its promises of presidential access to donors — as well as confusion about whether donors are giving that money to America250 or not. (Freedom250 has also become the nonprofit organizing the odder semiquincentennial events, such as the June 14th UFC match on the White House lawn and the August 23rd Freedom 250 Grand Prix, an IndyCar race around the Washington Mall.)

The Washington Post,which is owned by tech billionaire Jeff Bezos but lost $100 million in 2025, forcing it to lay off roughly a third of its newsroom earlier this year, has downgraded to a traditional pre-dinner reception at the Washington Hilton, according toAxios. This is ironic considering that last year, it threw a brunch party for advertisers at the members-only Ned’s Club that reportedly cost $1 million.

“It’s a deranged penguin”

*Verge *features editor Kevin Nguyen (no relation) recently interviewed famed director Werner Herzog in advance of the 6K IMAX rerelease of his 2010 documentary *Cave of Forgotten Dreams. *The vast majority of the interview centered on the difficulties of remastering that film, but I did ask Kevin if he could get Herzog’s opinion on a hyper-specific thing pertinent to my world. What did he think of the Trump administration social media teams using the “nihilist penguin” scene from his *Encounters at the End of the World *to make memes promoting MAGA nationalist ideology earlier this year? (In their telling, the penguin, which keeps running away from his colony and heads to the mountains alone, is a nonconformist free thinker; in the 2007 documentary, Herzog describes the penguin as “insane,” “deranged,” and “running towards certain death.”)

Their conversation is below:

I saw you acknowledge this on your Instagram — that the scene with the insane penguin from Encounters at the End of the World has kind of gotten a new life. I was wondering if you’ve seen that the Trump administration and the Department of Homeland Security have turned it into a meme.

Werner Herzog: Well, it’s bizarre. It’s not only Homeland Security