Trump later took to Truth Social in an attempt to discredit Pope Leo, saying he doesn't "want a Pope who thinks it’s OK for Iran to have a Nuclear Weapon." Among other things, Trump said the Pope should "stop catering to the Radical Left, and focus on being a Great Pope, not a Politician."
Trump also posted an image—that he deleted following MAGA backlash—of himself as Jesus Christ healing the sick.
@realDonaldTrump/Truth Social
Gaines condemned the post, saying Trump should express "humility" and that "God shall not be mocked":
"Why? Seriously, I cannot understand why he'd post this. Is he looking for a response? Does he actually think this?"
"Either way, two things are true. 1) a little humility would serve him well 2) God shall not be mocked"
You can see her post below.
When asked by CBS News if he took down the controversial image due to pressure from MAGA supporters, Trump attacked his one-time ally:
“I didn’t listen to Riley Gaines. I’m not a big fan of Riley, actually.”
Then Gaines responded to this by simping for him anyway in a post on X:
"I love the President and I'm so grateful he's in the Oval Office. Of course, I'll continue to support him and the America First agenda. At the end of the day, I do nothing for the approval of man. Our purpose on this earth is to glorify Him in all we do."
"The truth social post missed the mark. It's now deleted. Amazing! We're imperfect people. I know I am. I don't get my feelings hurt easy and I know with the President it's really not personal."
"I want to spend eternity in a real place called Heaven. I'd love for Trump to be there too. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. I'll keep doing my part by speaking truth & doing my best to lead others to Christ."
You can see her post below.
Gaines did the same in a video message to her followers. She said that while she’s “always in [Trump’s] corner” and views him as “a master troll,” she couldn’t understand why he chose to depict himself as Jesus, suggesting that even some of his supporters found that particular move confusing or difficult to defend.
At one point, she noted that her post saying "God shall not be mocked" went viral, adding:
"The comments were filled with people calling me a [Republican in name only] and a grifter and a liberal, a closeted liberal who’s trying to destroy President Trump, which those people aren’t even worth responding to."
You can hear what she said in the video below.
The second-hand embarrassment was real.
Trump's attack against Gaines comes despite the fact he and Gaines have appeared together at multiple events over the years, reflecting their shared alignment on the issue of transgender women in sports.
At last year's signing ceremony for an executive order targeting transgender athletes, Trump praised her as a “tremendous athlete” and said she had been “in the forefront” of the issue. He added that some might even see her as “the leader.”
Clearly Trump's words are meaningless.
Trump later took to Truth Social in an attempt to discredit Pope Leo, saying he doesn't "want a Pope who thinks it’s OK for Iran to have a Nuclear Weapon." Among other things, Trump said the Pope should "stop catering to the Radical Left, and focus on being a Great Pope, not a Politician."
Trump also posted an image—that he deleted following MAGA backlash—of himself as Jesus Christ healing the sick.
@realDonaldTrump/Truth Social
When asked about it, he claimed he thought the image "was me as a doctor":
"It wasn't a depiction. I did post it and I thought it was me as a doctor and had to do with [the] Red Cross as a Red Cross worker which we support and only the fake news could come up with that one."
"I just heard about it and I thought, 'How did they come up with that?' It's supposed to be me as a doctor making people better and I do make people better. I make people a lot better."
You can hear what he said in the video below.
But when asked about this during a Fox News interview, Vance contradicted Trump, said the image was posted as a "joke," and blamed people “not understanding his [Trump's] humor”:
“I think the president was posting a joke and, of course, he took it down because he recognized that a lot of people weren’t understanding his humor in that case."
“I think the president of the United States likes to mix it up on social media and I actually think that’s one of the good things about this president, is that he’s not filtered – he doesn’t send everything through a communications professional. He actually reaches out directly to the people.”
"When it comes to the disagreements with the Vatican, we're gonna have disagreements from time to time. I think it's a good thing that the Pope is advocating for the things he cares about but we're always gonna have disagreements on matters of public policy."
"I should say 'sometimes' we're gonna have disagreements on public policy. The Pope has been critical of our immigration policy but ultimately the immigration policy of the United States is set by Donald Trump. The Pope is gonna have disagreements on other issues."
"We can respect the Pope, we have a good relationship with the Vatican, but we're ultimately gonna disagree on substantive questions from time to time. I think it's a totally reasonable thing. It isn't toally newsworthy."
You can hear what Vance said in the video below.
People were not buying what Vance was selling.
It's not exactly comforting to know the government is in the hands of a social media troll.
The statistics are skewed by excluding some childbearing aged women, both younger and older than the target group, as well as the assumption that all people assigned female at birth are fertile and that all pregnancies end with a live birth.
Congenital conditions as well as illness, injury, and late presenting disorders can all cause infertility and fetal defects can cause miscarriage and stillbirth making the label "fertility rate" for statistics on live births dubious at best.
But when reviewing the graph of birth rates by age of the mother over year of birth, Siegel remarked:
"We still have 3.6 million births a year. But the problem is teens and young adults from ages 15 to 19."
Siegel added:
"The fertility rate is down 7 percent, and it’s down 70 percent over the last two decades, meaning we’re telling people that are young not to have babies, to wait until they’re in a more stable life situation, until they’re more financially secure. Maybe they haven’t found the right partner."
You can see Siegel's comments here:
People were appalled that anyone in the healthcare field would see a drop in teen pregnancy as a problem.
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In the same segment, Siegel said:
"Dana, people are having kids in their 30s now, not their 20s. And again, that’s leading to one thing I want to point out."
"The replacement rate is down to 1.56, meaning every couple is having, on average, 1.56 children in the United States. We need two or above to keep the population at the same amount."
Teen pregnancies peaked at 96.3 per 1,000 in the United States around 1957, then began to steadily decline. A second smaller peak occurred around 1991, but has fallen ever since.
Experts cite increased education and access to birth control for the decline in teen pregnancies as well as an overall shift in women choosing to marry and/or have children later in life.
Fox News and other conservative media have been echoing the alarm over lower birth rates in the United States. While not specified in Siegel's commentary, much of the alarm stems from the fear mongering Great Replacement conspiracy theory which warns that minorities will replace Whites as the majority.
Project 2025 also addressed a push to remove women from the workplace and limit their reproductive freedom to force more births.
