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Of all the things that would have fractured the religious right’s alliance with Donald Trump, it would be him posting an AI-generated image of himself styled as Jesus Christ, healing the sick and surrounded by heavenly angels — only hours after attacking Pope Leo XIV, no less. (As conservative commentator Rod Dreher, who attended JD Vance’s Catholic baptism, told The Wall Street Journal: “Not saying Trump is the Antichrist. But he’s radiating the spirit of Antichrist, no question.”) This time, it wasn’t the White House memelord army that had generated it. Trump admitted to reporters on Monday, while accepting a DoorDash delivery, that he’d posted the image to Truth Social. “I thought it was me as a doctor,” he said.

But X user S2_Underground discovered a curious thing: The image Trump posted wasn’t exactly new. A version of the AI-generated image had been initially posted by a MAGA influencer named Nick Adams back in February, but by the time it made its way to Trump’s feed, several odd transformations had occurred. The most notable one, which went viral, was that a soldier floating in the clouds had turned into a faceless, spiky-headed winged being that social media users immediately viewed as a demon. But there are several more subtle changes, too: Trump’s flag has more stars than the Adams one, the fighter jets look slightly off, the buildings in the background look blurrier, and everyone’s faces, including Trump’s, look more fearful and less benevolent. Plus, one man’s “VETERAN” hat turned into what my coworker Owen Grove described as “a ‘የቹ፪ጮጎል’ hat.”

Here’s a terrible DC political journalism insider secret I’ve learned over the years: You can roughly gauge the health of a media company by the scale of its White House Correspondents’ Dinner-week event. If it’s scored an Ambassadors’ residence one year but downgrade to a “private reception” the next, that’s one sign. If it’s partnered with another outlet, they’re probably pooling resources. If it’s cohosting it with a tech company — an increasingly popular option — there’s probably a quiet agreement that the tech company is footing the bill.

Here’s some of my favorite media/tech collaborations I’ve heard about this cycle:

Verge features editor Kevin Nguyen (no relation) recently interviewed famed director Werner Herzog in advance of the 6K IMAX rerelease of his 2010 documentary Cave of Forgotten Dreams. The vast majority of the interview centered on the difficulties of remastering that film, but I did ask Kevin if he could get Herzog’s opinion on a hyper-specific thing pertinent to my world. What did he think of the Trump administration social media teams using the “nihilist penguin” scene from his Encounters at the End of the World to make memes promoting MAGA nationalist ideology earlier this year? (In their telling, the penguin, which keeps running away from his colony and heads to the mountains alone, is a nonconformist free thinker; in the 2007 documentary, Herzog describes the penguin as “insane,” “deranged,” and “running towards certain death.”)

Their conversation is below:

Werner Herzog: Well, it’s bizarre. It’s not only Homeland Security or the White House. There’s tens of thousands of others who have utilized it. [laughs] The bizarre thing about this is I made this film and released it 18 years ago. For 18 years this little sequence has been part of the film. Why is it that today after 18 years, all of a sudden, it explodes on the internet? Why is that? And you see the White House using it. I must say I’m an advocate of free speech and I have to concede free speech to the White House as well. So it doesn’t really hurt because it’s — I call it “fair usage” — a few seconds only. It’s rather hilarious for me. That the White House put it out is some kind of joke.

So it doesn’t bother you that the White House put it out as some sort of a joke? Entirely divorced from the context of the film? I watched the White House and DHS clips. They seem to entirely misunderstand the scene or even the words.

I mean, you have 80,000 misunderstandings. If you speak of misunderstandings, it doesn’t matter. The real puzzling question is, why 18 years after the film was released? And what doesn’t really come across in all these memes is it’s a heartbreaking story that sticks to you.

I remember the scene very well in the context of the film and then when you see it as a clip from the Department of Homeland Security, it’s so strange. They’re, like, celebrating the independence of the penguin?

Well, so do I. The penguin is simply — I would not say insane. I have a better word for it: deranged. It’s out of its range. It’s a deranged penguin. And let there be hundreds of different interpretations and contexts and a life of its own. It is puzzling and, you see, when the White House published it — and I think they use only six or seven seconds — I heard about it only four days later. I looked at it; by then the whole thing was already over. These events on the internet are very ephemeral. It lasted 48 hours and then it was gone.

We at The Verge have been talking nonstop about this 11,000-word feature from The Atlantic’s Caity Weaver — personally, one of my favorite writers working today — about her nationwide quest to find the best free restaurant bread in America. Mild spoilers ahead: It turns out that her top choice is served in a DC-based restaurant, and I can personally vouch that it is, indeed, an incredible bread. (I do have complaints about the other, mid breads that come along with it, but that is neither here nor there.)

For any bakers who read Regulator and can’t make it to the restaurants that serve it, I’m told by a source (aka a DC friend who’s a passionate home baker) that this recipe is a very close dupe. Give it a shot if you can!

See you next week.