Former Vice President Mike Pence advised his past boss, President Donald Trump, to back down in his feud with Pope Leo XIV and trashed the president’s now-deleted AI-generated meme depicting himself as Jesus as “offensive.”

The image, posted to Truth Social on April 12, showed the president appearing in a Christ-like role, healing a sick patient while surrounded by followers. The post quickly spread across social media, drawing fiery backlash from allies and religious conservatives within the MAGA coalition.

Trump later deleted the image which was posted hours after he unloaded on the pope’s call for peace in Iran, branding the pontiff “WEAK” in a feud that has continued in the weeks since.

While current Vice President JD Vance, a Catholic convert, backed the president’s remarks and scolded the pope’s commentary on the Iran conflict, Pence, who served in the same role under the first administration, took a different approach.

Speaking to MS NOW’s Ali Vitali in an interview aired during Thursday’s Morning Joe, Pence addressed Trump’s Jesus meme and his rhetoric about the pope:

Well, I found the language and the images offensive. I think the president was right to take one image down. And his ongoing argument with Pope Leo, I think has abated to a degree. And I welcome that. I think the pope has every right to express himself in a manner that he believes is consistent with the gospel of Jesus Christ. And the president has every right to express his view and his agenda for the American people.

And I think I think if I was advising him, as I did every day for four and a half years, I’d say, let the pope be the pope and you be the president.

Pressed by Vitali on whether he had expressed that view to Trump, Pence laughed and said he had “not.”

“I have not. I was able to congratulate the president on his election and congratulate the First Lady, but we don’t talk as often as we used to. But I get the distinct impression he still listens to us and watches what we do,” he said.

The relationship between Trump and Pence, who was raised Catholic but later converted to evangelical Christianity, faltered following the president’s 2020 election defeat after the then-vice president moved to certify former President Joe Biden’s victory.

Watch above via MS NOW.

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