If the antichrist of the Bible is real, he may very well be President Donald Trump.
Trump may have committed his most blasphemous act yet. He recently posted an AI-generated image of himself as Jesus Christ laying hands radiating golden light on a sick person while people are shown praying in his direction. The image resulted in such swift and significant condemnation from both the left and the right alike that it led to Trump deleting the post (though he still maintains he thought it was depicting him as a doctor), which is something he almost never does. The president has only ever deleted posts a handful of times since he started posting on Truth Social in 2022, including the video depicting Barack and Michelle Obama as apes, a 2024 campaign video referencing “a unified Reich,” and violations of a gag order imposed during his hush money trial.
The image prompted alarm from Americans of all political stripes, but the comments from self-professed conservative Christians were the most noteworthy:
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In a post to her official X account, former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia) said Trump’s Jesus post was “more than blasphemy” and evoked “an Antichrist spirit.”
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Right-wing pastor Joel Webbon suggested Trump was “demon possessed” then hosted a livestream headlined: “Is Donald Trump the Anti-Christ?”
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Conservative Christian influencer Mandy Arthur told her more than 35,000 X followers: “we might have made a mistake and accidently[sic] elected the Antichrist.”
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Far-right anti-transgender activist Riley Gaines commented on Trump’s post by declaring: “God shall not be mocked.”
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Conservative journalist Megan Basham of Ben Shapiro’s Daily Wire publication described the image as “OUTRAGEOUS blasphemy” and demanded Trump “ask for forgiveness from the American people and then from God.”
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Clint Russell, who hosts the right-wing “Liberty Lockdown” podcast, tweeted to his nearly 300,000 followers: “In 18 months I went from hesitantly voting for Trump to thinking there’s a decent chance he’s the antichrist.”
Trump’s blasphemous post also came amid his feud with Pope Leo XIV. The pontiff has consistently criticized Trump’s war in Iran, saying “God does not bless any conflict” and that any true follower of Jesus “never stands on the side of those who yesterday wielded the sword and today drop[s] bombs.” That remark came after Trump issued a profanity-laced threat on Easter Sunday — the day Christians celebrate the resurrection of Jesus — that read: “Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell. JUST WATCH!”
The fact that so many white Christian evangelical Protestants have so loudly turned on Trump is even more remarkable given that they have consistently been some of Trump’s most stalwart supporters dating back to his first term. In 2016, Pew Research found that Trump won 77 percent of white evangelical Protestants. That number shot up to 83 percent in 2020, and still held strong at 81 percent in 2024.
As recently as February of 2026, Trump still comfortably had two thirds of that group in his corner. Pew found that 69 percent of white evangelical Protestants approved of Trump’s performance as president, with 58 percent supporting most or all of his policies, and another 40 percent either extremely or very confident that he acts ethically in office. Pew found in a mid-April survey that only a small minority of Americans now believe Trump is religious, though that survey was taken just before Trump attacked Pope Leo XIV and posted the image of himself as Jesus.
To truly understand the gravity of thought leaders among the most pro-Trump demographic now openly calling him the antichrist, it’s important to see what the Bible itself says about the antichrist, his characteristics, and how Trump almost perfectly fits the bill.
How the Bible Warns Christians About the Antichrist
The word “antichrist” only appears four times in the New Testament of the Bible, and all of those are in the Johannine epistles near the end of the Bible written by the Apostle John. The New Revised Standard Version’s translation of 1 John 2:18 reads: “Children, it is the last hour! As you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. From this we know that it is the last hour.” Verse 22 refers to the antichrist as “the liar … who denies that Jesus is the Christ” and “who denies the Father and the Son.”
Later, in chapter 4, John the Apostle refers not to an individual but rather “the spirit of the antichrist” who professes that “Jesus is not from God.” And in 2 John 1:7, he writes that “the deceiver and the antichrist” can be anyone “who do[es] not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh.” But while John defines the antichrist in a spiritual way, the Apostle Paul defined him as an individual. In chapter two of his second epistle to the Thessalonians, Paul didn’t use the word “antichrist” but wrote of “the lawless one” who is “destined for destruction.” And in verse four, he notably wrote something that could certainly be used to describe a president who posts an image of himself as Jesus Christ.
“He opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, declaring himself to be God,” Paul wrote.
A few verses later, Paul expanded on how the “coming of the lawless one” will be “apparent in the working of Satan, who uses all power, signs, lying wonders, and every kind of wicked deception for those who are perishing because they refused to love the truth and so be saved.”
According to Paul, the antichrist is a prolific liar. In his first term, Trump told more than 30,000 documented lies, and he continues to lie to us on an almost daily basis. Jesus also cautioned his followers to watch out for liars. In his Sermon on the Mount from the Gospel of Matthew, he warned the gathered audience to watch out for “false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.”
“You will know them by their fruits,” Jesus said in Matthew 7:16. “Are grapes gathered from thorns, or figs from thistles?”
The most popular descriptions of the antichrist come from Revelations, in which the Apostle John described the end of the world and the final battle between good and evil. John wrote of a “beast” who arose from the “sea,” though it’s understood that the beast came from a sea of nations or people, rather than the actual ocean. Revelations 13:3 is perhaps the most chilling, as it almost perfectly describes attendees at the 2024 Republican National Convention who wore a bandage on their ear in solidarity with Trump, who had a bandage on his own ear following the assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania.
“One of its heads seemed to have received a death blow, but its fatal wound had been healed. In amazement the whole earth followed the beast,” John wrote.
Trump wasn’t shot in the head, though the bullet from Thomas Matthew Crooks’ rifle grazed his ear. An FBI analysis attributed Trump’s injury to the bullet, which may have been “whole or fragmented into smaller pieces.” And numerous Republicans suggested God was personally involved in stopping the attempt on Trump’s life. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) said “GOD protected President Trump.” Rep. Cory Mills (R-Florida) said Trump was saved by “divine intervention.” The day after the shooting, Rep. Maria Elvira Salzar (R-Florida) posted an image of a divine being personally stopping the bullet before it reached Trump’s head.
Whether the president of the United States is the personification of the Biblical antichrist is obviously up to personal interpretation. But the parallels between what the Bible tells us about the antichrist and Donald Trump are too numerous to ignore. And Christians are called by the scripture to directly rebuke evil, lest they incur God’s wrath.
Christians Have a Responsibility to Rebuke Evil
The Bible’s warnings about the antichrist are obvious enough. But Christians are called on to stand against all things that deny God. James 4:7 of the New Testament simply instructs Christians to “submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” 1 Peter 5:8-9 urges followers of Christ to “be alert and of sober mind,” as “the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.”
The seventh chapter of 2 Chronicles, in the Old Testament of the Bible, describes King Solomon’s dedication of a temple. Following the dedication, God appears to Solomon and issues a stern warning of what should happen if his followers forsake him and worship other gods:
“But if you turn away and forsake the decrees and commands I have given you and go off to serve other gods and worship them, then I will uproot Israel from my land, which I have given them, and will reject this temple I have consecrated for my Name. I will make it a byword and an object of ridicule among all peoples. This temple will become a heap of rubble. All who pass by will be appalled and say, ‘Why has the LORD done such a thing to this land and to this temple?’ People will answer, ‘Because they have forsaken the LORD, the God of their ancestors, who brought them out of Egypt, and have embraced other gods, worshiping and serving them — that is why he brought all this disaster on them.’”
Coincidentally, Trump recently read the first part of 2 Chronicles 7 out loud at a recent marathon Bible reading from the Oval Office. Though his contribution to the reading stopped just short of God’s warning to Solomon.
There are already high-profile Christians who are standing firmly with Trump in spite of his blasphemy. On April 16, Fox News primetime host Sean Hannity announced he was leaving the Catholic Church. While he didn’t specifically mention Pope Leo XIV, Hannity’s announcement came during Trump’s spat with the pontiff. Rep. Troy Nehls (R-Texas) said Trump was “better than sliced bread” and was “almost the second coming [of Jesus Christ]” while speaking to CNN reporter Manu Raju.
During an appearance on MS NOW host Jen Psaki’s show “The Briefing,” Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear (D), who is rumored to be a 2028 presidential candidate, called out Vice President JD Vance (who is widely rumored to run in the 2028 Republican presidential primary) for ignoring “the commandment that thou shalt not worship false idols” by “defending Donald Trump at all costs.”
“This is a president who has attacked the pope multiple times, who is just trying to live out and speak the New Testament,” Beshear said. “He’s apologizing for a guy who is picturing himself as Jesus and then claiming, ‘No, I thought it was a doctor,’ therefore violating ‘thou shalt not lie.’”
Whether Republicans want to be the party of Christianity or the party of worshipping false idols is a question they’ll have to seriously reckon with very soon, unless they want the American electorate to speak for them. Sen. Rev. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) — who is also the senior pastor at Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s church in Atlanta, Georgia — recently issued a direct challenge to “Christian leaders who have been carrying water for Donald Trump” urging them to reject the evil of the Trump administration, and embrace the teachings of Jesus.
“Why do you sit silently while he makes a mockery of the faith, while in recent days he blasphemes the faith, even depicting himself as Jesus Christ?” Warnock asked. “Let’s be honest: Donald Trump represents the opposite of everything Jesus stood for.”
Warnock went on to say Trump has “been busy taking healthcare away from millions of Americans” while Jesus healed the sick. The Georgia senator also pointed out that Trump “despises the poor” while Jesus “came to preach good news to the poor.”
“Now he’s taking off the act completely, and literally holding religion and those who are people of faith in contempt. He doesn’t even have enough respect to tell a decent lie, claiming he thought this was a depiction of a doctor,” he continued. “Donald Trump’s been using religion to divide us. When do we get past politics? When do we stand up for compassion, for love of neighbor, for justice, for truth telling? And if you sit silently while this continues, when does your silence become complicity?”
Rev. Warnock is right. All Christians have a responsibility to call out Trump’s denial and mockery of God. Those who don’t are in direct violation of the first two of the Ten Commandments: “you shall have no other gods before me,” and “you shall not make for yourself an idol.” Republicans can be MAGA or they can be Christian, but they can’t be both.
Carl Gibson is a journalist whose work has been published in CNN, USA TODAY, the Guardian, the Washington Post, the Houston Chronicle, the Louisville Courier-Journal, Barron’s, Business Insider, the Independent, and NPR, among others. Follow him on Bluesky @crgibs.bsky.social.
