Scoop: Trump discussed "Jesus" meme with Bill Pulte before posting it, sources say
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Bill Pulte and the meme Trump posted late Sunday, before removing it Monday. Photo: Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images and Truth Social
Before President Trump posted an image of him as a Christ-like healer, he discussed the meme with his controversial housing finance chief Bill Pulte, Axios has learned.
Why it matters: Trump's Truth Social post Sunday night drew such a fierce backlash from Christians that he pulled it down, an extremely rare move for him. But the mystery of who may have helped introduce the meme to him wasn't clear, until now.
- Pulte declined to comment, as did the White House.
Behind the scenes: Pulte, the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, is a ubiquitous figure in the president's orbit both in the White House and at Trump's Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Fla., where Pulte is a member.
- Trump was in South Florida over the weekend and the two spent time together, according to two advisers who spoke to the president about the image.
At some point, Pulte brought the image to Trump's attention, the advisers told Axios. It's not clear whether he just displayed the rendering on his phone or actually sent it to the president.
- "Everyone thought it was a joke," one of the advisers said.
- A third adviser who's friendly with Pulte said he didn't provide the meme to Trump.
Friction point: Trump's Sunday post came at a particularly provocative time for a meme widely interpreted as Trump portraying himself as Jesus, healing the sick.
- It was Easter Sunday for Eastern Orthodox Christians.
- The Sunday before, on Easter Sunday for Catholic and Protestant Christians, Trump had posted a vulgarity-laced threat to destroy Iran's infrastructure that ended with, "Praise be to Allah."
- Hours before posting the meme Sunday, Trump lashed out at Pope Leo XIV over the pope's criticism of war, calling the pontiff "WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy," and accusing the U.S.-born pope of "catering to the Radical Left."
The series of posts came as the U.S. has been trying to negotiate an end to the war in Iran — and as the White House has sought to draw attention to the administration's push to cut taxes.
Zoom in: Pulte, 37, has a penchant for stirring up controversy, grabbing headlines and irritating other members of Trump's administration.
- Pulte fired dozens of Fannie Mae employees whom he'd accused of fraud, without evidence. The fired staffers sued, but a judge ruled Pulte was legally immune in a landmark ruling last week.
- In January, the Financial Times called Pulte an "agent of chaos" because of his role in pushing for a Justice Department criminal probe of Fed chair Jerome Powell, who became a Trump target over his reluctance to lower interest rates. Pulte denied involvement in the probe.
Pulte has been a driving force in a failed effort to criminally charge New York Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat who won a civil fraud case against Trump in 2024.
- In response, Democrats successfully persuaded the General Accounting Office to investigate whether Pulte has misused his federal authority
- Last year, Pulte got in a dispute with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who threatened to punch him "in the f*cking face," according to Politico.
The intrigue: Adding to the strangeness of the AI-generated image Trump posted late Sunday was that it included a mysterious, horned creature in the heavens that some interpreted as a demon — though art experts cautioned against reading too much into AI slop.
- The original image of Trump as Christ-like healer didn't include the horned creature.
- It was published in February in a since-deleted X post by MAGA influencer Nick Adams, who wrote at the time that "America has been sick for a long time. President Trump is healing this nation."
