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A firestorm of bipartisan condemnation has forced former and current U.S. President Donald Trump to take down a controversial AI-created post on his Truth Social platform that depicted him in a Jesus-like healing role, capping a chaotic 24 hours that also saw an escalating public verbal clash with Pope Leo XIV over the ongoing military conflict in Iran.

The removed image, generated entirely through artificial intelligence, showed Trump dressed in a flowing white robe pressing a glowing hand to the forehead of a patient lying in a hospital bed, a composition intentionally echoing classic religious art depicting Jesus Christ healing the sick. The graphic layered in overtly patriotic American imagery as well: the Statue of Liberty stood in the background, a large American flag billowed beside it, fighter jets and a bald eagle were included, alongside a uniformed soldier, a praying woman, and a hospital nurse.

Criticism of the inflammatory post broke out within minutes of it going live, with condemnation coming even from corners of the conservative and faith-based movements that have been core supporters of Trump. Christian activist Sean Feucht, who is currently organizing a national series of faith-centered events to celebrate the 250th anniversary of U.S. independence, publicly called for the image’s immediate removal, stating that there was no conceivable context in which the content could be considered appropriate.

Prominent conservative commentator and transgender rights critic Riley Gaines also pushed back against the post, invoking a biblical phrase by writing “God shall not be mocked.” Leading faith-based American media outlets joined the rebuke as well. David Brody, a senior journalist with the Christian Broadcasting Network, argued that the image crossed a clear red line, noting that even loyal backers of Trump’s policy agenda could reject the inappropriate content.

The ill-fated image was posted less than 60 minutes after Trump published a lengthy, scathing attack on Pope Leo XIV, the first American to hold the papacy, who has emerged as one of the most high-profile global critics of U.S. and Israeli military operations in Iran. In his original criticism, Trump branded the Pope “weak on crime” and “terrible for foreign policy.”

Pope Leo responded to Trump’s attack earlier on Monday, pushing back firmly against the president’s criticism. He stated that he has no fear of the Trump administration, and that his only commitment is to speaking openly about the core message of the Gospel, which he views as the central purpose of his role as pontiff. The Pope has repeatedly described the violence of the Iran war as “absurd and inhuman” in his public remarks.

Speaking to reporters at the White House on Monday, Trump refused to issue any apology for either the attack on the Pope or the controversial image. He insisted that Pope Leo had taken the wrong position on the conflict, arguing that a nuclear-armed Iran cannot be tolerated, and claimed the Pope would ultimately be unsatisfied with the end result of the current military campaign.

The BBC has reached out to the White House to request official clarification on the specific circumstances that led to the image’s removal, and has not yet received a response. This incident is far from the first time that content posted to Trump’s Truth Social account has sparked major national controversy. Back in February, a racist edited video that depicted former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama as apes was posted to the account before being removed. Initially, the White House defended the clip as a harmless “internet meme” and told critics to drop what it called “fake outrage,” but after sustained backlash from multiple Republican senators, the post was pulled, and a senior White House official claimed a junior staffer had published the clip “erroneously.”

Against the backdrop of ongoing conflict between Iran, the United States, and Israel, Washington has advanced a new strategic gambit: a targeted naval blockade on maritime traffic moving in and out of Iranian ports in the Persian Gulf region. The proposal, which has been debated heavily among defense and policy circles, raises critical questions about military feasibility, strategic outcomes, and the potential ripple effects across global energy markets.

Retired U.S. Rear Admiral Mark Montgomery affirmed to the BBC that the blockade operation is militarily achievable, arguing it carries far less risk than more aggressive alternative options floated by former President Donald Trump in recent weeks. Options including seizing Iran’s Kharg Island or running permanent military escorted convoys through the narrow Strait of Hormuz would put U.S. personnel in far greater danger, Montgomery noted. In the confined waters of the strait, U.S. forces would be directly exposed to retaliatory strikes from Iranian missiles, attack drones, and fast attack craft, with the added threat of naval mines complicating any large-scale movement.

In contrast, a blockade positioned further offshore in the Gulf of Oman allows U.S. warships to maintain a safer operating distance while still tracking and intercepting vessels departing or heading to Iranian ports at will. The U.S. Navy already possesses all necessary capabilities for this mission, from special operations teams and maritime helicopters to fast interception craft. Past U.S. blockades on Venezuela and Cuba already demonstrate Washington’s long-standing ability to enforce such measures, and the January seizure of the Russian oil tanker *Marinera* in the North Atlantic proved that interdiction operations can be executed effectively almost anywhere on the globe.

U.S. Central Command (Centcom) has stated the blockade will be “enforced impartially against vessels of all nations” entering or leaving Iranian ports and coastal areas, though vessels calling at non-Iranian terminals will not be detained. Ships carrying humanitarian aid will be allowed passage, but will be subject to mandatory inspection, the command confirmed.

While the strategic logic of the move is clear, its long-term success remains far from guaranteed. Since the outbreak of the wider regional war, Iran has maintained steady exports of its own petrochemical products through the Gulf, earning billions of dollars in critical revenue while also disrupting hydrocarbon exports from other Gulf nations. A fully effective blockade would cut off that income stream, further weakening Iran’s already strained economy and pressuring its leadership to make concessions. But Iran has already demonstrated significant resilience after more than a month of coordinated U.S. and Israeli attacks, and many analysts believe the country is prepared to endure the added pressure of a blockade.

Compounding this, a prolonged blockade will almost certainly push global oil prices even higher than current elevated levels. David Satterfield, a former U.S. special envoy for Middle East humanitarian affairs, told the BBC that Iranian leadership is confident it can outlast the pressure. “They believe they can outweigh this,” Satterfield explained. “Iran thinks the U.S. will face economic pain from spiking oil prices, and Gulf states will ultimately pressure Washington to reopen the strait to traffic.” He added that Washington has underestimated Iran’s long-term determination: “The Iranians believe that they can absorb more pain for a longer period than their opponents can.”

Maritime industry observers have already begun tracking immediate shifts in shipping traffic around the strait following the announcement of the blockade. In the 48 hours after Trump’s initial announcement, the strait saw its highest volume of traffic since the war began in late February, with roughly 30 identifiable vessels (those with active automatic identification systems) passing through. Lloyd’s List editor-in-chief Richard Meade described the surge as “a flurry of vessels trying to get out” before the blockade took full effect, and several vessels already made U-turns to return to safer ports after the policy was announced. Maritime intelligence analyst Michelle Wiese Bockmann, who is closely monitoring current traffic, noted that “If I was a seafarer, I’d be very worried” about operating in the region now.

For now, with a temporary ceasefire holding, the conflict has morphed into a standoff of competing blockades, with the global economy caught directly in the crossfire. U.S. officials are reportedly hoping that the new blockade will push China, the world’s largest importer of Iranian crude oil, to increase diplomatic pressure on Tehran to make concessions. Despite holding large strategic petroleum reserves, China cannot absorb a prolonged disruption to its Iranian oil supply without significant economic fallout.

At this early stage, Donald Trump’s latest regional move remains a high-stakes gamble. The full economic and geopolitical impacts of the blockade are set to unfold in the coming weeks, with consequences that will be felt far beyond the Persian Gulf.

A growing diplomatic and religious rift has emerged between U.S. former President Donald Trump and Pope Leo XIV, the first American-born pontiff in Roman Catholic history, after the pontiff’s public rebuke of Trump’s threats against Iran triggered a sharp personal attack from the former president.

The conflict began when Pope Leo XIV publicly pushed back against aggressive rhetoric from Trump targeting the Islamic Republic of Iran, warning that escalatory threats risked sparking broader regional instability and endangering civilian lives across the Middle East. That condemnation quickly prompted a retaliatory attack from Trump, who took aim at the pontiff’s leadership and his unprecedented role as the first U.S. citizen to lead the global Catholic Church.

In a recent public statement responding to Trump’s criticism, Pope Leo XIV made clear that his commitment to advocating for peace and global justice would not be silenced. The pontiff reaffirmed that the Catholic Church has long played a role in speaking out against aggression and promoting diplomatic solutions to global conflict, and that his position on Iran was rooted in that longstanding tradition, rather than political alignment.

Observers note that the exchange marks a rare high-profile clash between a sitting (and future prospective) U.S. political leader and the head of the Catholic Church, particularly given the historic context of Pope Leo XIV’s ascension as the first American pope. The disagreement also highlights the growing intersection of religious leadership and global political discourse, as the pontiff continues to weigh in on pressing international security issues that impact millions of people worldwide.

A Florida federal judge has tossed out a high-profile defamation lawsuit brought by former President and current 2024 presidential candidate Donald Trump against the Wall Street Journal, its parent company News Corp, and media magnate Rupert Murdoch, stemming from a 2024 report linking Trump to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The dismissal opens the door for Trump to refile an amended complaint, setting the stage for a continued legal battle over the controversial reporting.

Trump first launched the suit last summer, demanding no less than $10 billion in damages over the Journal’s exclusive July 17 report. The story centered on a handwritten entry in a 2003 birthday book presented to Epstein, which the outlet claimed included Trump’s name and a crude drawing of a woman’s body. The former president has long maintained the entry is a fabrication, arguing the publication’s claims amounted to damaging defamation that tarnished his reputation.

In his 12-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Darrin Gayles made clear that Trump failed to meet the stringent legal standard required to proceed with a defamation claim brought by a public figure. Under longstanding U.S. defamation law, public figures must prove a news outlet acted with “actual malice” — meaning the organization either knew the reporting was false or acted with reckless disregard for the truth — to win a damages claim. Gayles wrote that Trump had come “nowhere close” to satisfying this high legal threshold, and that the former president had not plausibly alleged the Journal published the story with malicious intent.

Crucially, the judge dismissed the case without prejudice, a procedural ruling that allows Trump to submit an amended, corrected lawsuit by the court’s April 27 deadline. In response to the ruling, a lawyer for Trump told CBS News — the U.S. news partner of the BBC — that the former president intends to refile what he called a “powerhouse” amended suit. The legal team added that Trump remains committed to “hold accountable those who traffic in Fake News to mislead the American People.”

The reporting at the center of the case has been a flashpoint in national conversations about Trump’s long-rumored ties to Epstein, the wealthy financier who died by suicide in a New York jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges. Weeks after the Journal published its original report, Democratic lawmakers released an image of the handwritten birthday note to the public on social media, ahead of the scheduled release of a trove of sealed court documents related to Epstein’s case. Though the Journal never published the image itself, the details of the outlet’s description of the note matched the image released by lawmakers. Trump has repeatedly denied writing the entry, calling it a “fake thing” fabricated to hurt his political standing.

Fresh off the breakdown of high-stakes peace negotiations with Iran in Pakistan, former US President Donald Trump is actively evaluating a slate of coercive responses, including limited military strikes and a tightened maritime blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, to break the diplomatic stalemate, The Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday.

Citing unnamed senior officials and individuals briefed on internal administration deliberations, the outlet confirmed that limited targeted strikes were among the active options under Trump’s consideration as of Sunday, just hours after the Pakistan-based talks between the two nations collapsed with no agreement reached.

According to the sources, a large-scale, full bombing campaign is being ruled out as a lower-probability option. Two core factors are driving this hesitation: widespread regional concerns that a major offensive would trigger widespread instability across the Middle East, and Trump’s long-stated public and private aversion to entering open-ended, prolonged military conflicts that would draw the US deeper into the region.

Beyond military strikes, the report added that another option on the table is implementing a temporary maritime blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, a critical global chokepoint for oil and maritime trade, while the administration pressures US regional allies to take on long-term responsibility for running permanent military escort missions through the strait going forward.

Earlier on the same day, Trump publicly announced that the US Navy would begin blocking commercial and military traffic moving into or out of Iran through the Strait of Hormuz. This announcement was followed by a formal statement from US Central Command on Sunday, confirming that American forces would begin full implementation of the blockade, covering “all maritime traffic entering and exiting Iranian ports,” starting at 10 am Eastern Time on Monday.

The collapse of the Pakistan-hosted talks marks a major escalation in tensions between the US and Iran, ending a brief window of diplomatic progress that had raised hopes of de-escalation in the long-running standoff between the two nations.