EDITOR’S NOTE: This is an extract from CNN Vatican correspondent Christopher Lamb’s new book, “American Hope: What Pope Leo XIV Means for the Church and the World.” It will be published on March 26 by Headline in the United Kingdom and Hachette in the United States.
On Saturday May 3, 2025, one week after the funeral of Pope Francis, President Donald Trump posted an AI-generated image of himself dressed in the white cassock and miter of a pope. The image appeared on his Truth Social platform and was re-shared by the White House’s official X account. Within seconds it had gone viral. A few days earlier, when asked by reporters who he would like to see elected as Francis’s successor, the president had quipped, “I’d like to be…