A photo of Donald Trump attempting to look devout and spiritual has sparked widespread mockery online.
Social media users were quick to lampoon the image, creating memes and jokes that highlight the contrast between Trump’s usual public persona and the solemnity of the pose.
In the photo, the former president is seen in a prayerful pose, but viewers quickly zeroed in on the awkwardness of the moment, with many questioning whether the display was genuine or staged.
The praying photo of the billionaire businessman resurfaced this week on Instagram, and Trump’s critics had a field day clowning the notorious politician, who has particularly shown that the size of his hands is a triggering topic.
“That’s one way to make your hands look bigger!” an Instagram commenter voiced on the social networking app. A second person’s reaction read, “With Trump, everything is a lie.”
A third stated, “He couldn’t take a real picture in a real church ’cause he’d catch on fire.” Yet another individual expressed, “He couldn’t disgust me more.”
“You think he can count that high?” one commenter jokingly asked about the president’s ability to count to six.
The image of Trump praying in church was reposted by him in 2024 on his Truth Social platform. Other social media users were quick to point out that artificial intelligence was used to create the picture.
Another internet jokester quipped, “He had to use AI to get one picture praying.”
BBC News at the time explained how AI technology still has problems creating realistic human fingers, toes, and other body parts.
Trump has not stopped using holy imagery since returning to the White House for a second term in January 2025. In May, his administration faced widespread backlash for posting an AI image of the president dressed as the Pope.
Trump’s faith has been under scrutiny throughout his time as a powerhouse in American politics. Before initially winning the presidency in 2016, the native New Yorker conveyed his love of the Christian Bible.
“There’s so many things that you can learn from [The Bible],” Trump told Christian Broadcasting Network’s David Brody in 2015. “Proverbs, the chapter ‘never bend to envy.’ I’ve had that thing all of my life where people are bending to envy.”
He continued, “It’s an incredible book. So many things you can learn from the Bible, and you can lead your life. And I’m not just talking in terms of religion. I’m talking in terms of leading a life even beyond a religion.”
Those remarks by Trump set off red flags for fact checkers. Reports quickly emerged exposing that the phrase “never bend to envy” could not be found in the Bible, suggesting the conservative firebrand just made up the supposed scripture.
Then in 2016, “The Apprentice” star repeatedly avoided naming his favorite Bible verse while speaking with Bloomberg’s “With All Due Respect” podcast. That same year, Trump mispronounced “Second Corinthians” as “Two Corinthians” during a speech at the evangelical Liberty University.
Despite those multiple religious gaffes, Trump still managed to pull off a shocking win in the 2016 presidential election against his Democratic opponent, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Trump had to emerge from the stacked 2016 Republican primary before going head-to-head with Clinton that November. That pre-general election season featured him clashing with then-Sen. Marco Rubio from Florida over the size of his body parts.
“He’s always calling me ‘Little Marco.’ I’ll admit it, he is taller than me. He’s like 6’2″, which is why I don’t understand why his hands are the size of someone who is 5’2,” Rubio joked during a stump speech on the campaign trail.
Rubio resumed, “Have you seen his hands? And you know what they say about men with small hands — you can’t trust them!” Trump fired back at the man who now serves as his secretary of state in the current administration during a 2016 Republican debate.
“He hit my hands. I’ve never heard of this one. Look at those hands. Are they small hands?” Trump asked the live Fox News audience to loud cheers. “And he referred to my hands, if they’re small, something else must be small. I guarantee you, there’s no problem.”
