President Donald Trump doesn’t seem to be taking the criticism over an artificial intelligence-generated image depicting him as the pope too seriously.

The controversial image, which showed Trump dressed in papal regalia — a white cassock, a papal mitre on his head and a cross around his neck — was posted on the president’s account on his Truth Social platform on Friday. The image was also reshared on official social media accounts for the White House. Trump had joked to reporters days prior that he’d “like to be pope” following the death of Pope Francis.

People have been outraged by the image. Several Catholic leaders publicly condemned the depiction, calling it disrespectful and a mockery.

“This is deeply offensive to Catholics especially during this sacred time that we are still mourning the death of Pope Francis and praying for the guidance of the Holy Spirit for the election of our new Pope,” said Illinois Bishop John Paprocki in a statement on Facebook. “President Trump owes an apology to Catholics and all people of good will.”

The official social media account for the New York State Catholic Conference, the public policy voice of the Catholic bishops of New York state, released a statement on X on Saturday, saying “there is nothing clever or funny” about the image.

“Do not mock us,” the statement read.

But the president hasn’t seemed too bothered by the backlash. He insisted the AI-generated image was a “joke” when a reporter asked him about it during an event at the Oval Office on Monday, where he announced that the 2027 NFL draft will be held in Washington, D.C.

He gave quite the offhand response to the criticism: “They can’t take a joke?”

“You don’t mean the Catholics, you mean the fake news media? The Catholics loved it,” Trump continued before seeming to distance himself from the image.

“I had nothing to do with it, somebody made up a picture of me dressed like the pope, and they put it out on the internet,” he said. “That’s not me that did it. I have no idea where it came from. Maybe it was AI... I just saw it last evening.”

“Actually my wife thought it was cute,” he added, referencing first lady Melania Trump.

When the reporter pointed out that the photo was posted on official White House social media accounts, Trump shrugged it off, saying, “Somebody did it in fun, it’s fine. Have to have a little fun, don’t you?”

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for clarification on who posted the image to Trump’s Truth Social account.

And Trump isn’t the only person in his administration to have found humor in relation to the vacancy of the papacy. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) was slammed online last week after he responded to Trump’s joke about becoming the next pope by writing on X: “I was excited to hear that President Trump is open to the idea of being the next Pope.”

“This would truly be a dark horse candidate, but I would ask the papal conclave and Catholic faithful to keep an open mind about this possibility!” he quipped, adding: “The first Pope-U.S. President combination has many upsides.”

Vice President JD Vance, who converted to Catholicism, made a joke last week on X that Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s latest title could be pope.

Pope Francis’ funeral service was held on April 26 in St. Peter’s Square. The conclave to elect the new pope is set to begin on Wednesday.

Daniel Speed Thompson, associate professor in religious studies at the University of Dayton College of Arts and Sciences, told HuffPost that while he believes Trump’s response to criticism over the AI-generated image seemed typical for the president — to treat criticism directed at him as ‘trivial’ — it also spoke volumes.

“By saying that the AI image was a just a joke, he himself dismisses and trivializes the concerns of Catholics who found the image ill-timed and repugnant,” Thompson said. “It indicates to me, at the very least, that the president has no conception of ‘sacredness’ outside of how people regard him.”

John P. Wihbey, director of the AI-media strategies lab at Northeastern University in Boston, told Reuters on Monday that Trump is exploiting an “uncharted territory,” which is the “merging of social media and AI power, organized for political power and narrative dominance.”

He added: “I suspect politicians around the world will begin to use generative AI and social together in newfound ways.”

It’s unusual to joke about an upcoming conclave in this manner.

“I have lived through four papal elections, with the fifth one occurring this week. I’ve never seen this level of humor expressed by U.S. public officials about an upcoming conclave,” Thompson said, though he pointed out that “we live in a media world vastly different from even the time of the last papal election in 2013.”

“We also live in the Trump era, which relishes overturning norms of acceptable behavior by public officials,” he said.

Thompson said that while, in general, humor about the papacy may not necessarily always be considered offensive, Trump’s AI-generated photo goes “beyond the pale of humor and into the realm of insult and humiliation.”

“That indeed is a concerning precedent for the future,” he said.

Thompson said that he believes Catholics were offended by the image for two main reasons: Catholics around the world are still mourning the death of Pope Francis, and the image itself was “disturbing.”

“For them, picturing President Trump, the seeming antithesis of so many Christian values, as the pope, who ideally should represent faith, integrity, selflessness, and peace, was jarring,” he said.