This really does take the wafer

That’s it. No more doubt. The diagnosis is indisputable: Trump is mad. The AI image of himself as Jesus Christ that he saw fit to post proves it.

Well, at least believers will no longer support Trump because he claims to be a Christian. No Christian I’ve ever met, and I’ve met quite a few, would ever have posted such a blasphemous picture.

Christians who have an acerbic tongue in their head may occasionally blaspheme, and I’m man enough to admit that I myself have been guilty of that on occasion. But what Trump did goes beyond any old blasphemy. As his erstwhile acolyte and now critic, Marjorie Taylor Greene, put it: “It’s more than blasphemy. It’s an Antichrist spirit.”

There I was, thinking that Mrs Greene is so odious that I could never possibly agree with her on anything. I still consider her odious, but she has a point there.

However, I don’t think Trump is an energumen possessed by the devil. The truth, I’m afraid, is more prosaic: he is getting more and more deranged.

So much so that he doesn’t even realise he is alienating his core support, conservative Christians. That’s not just bad Christianity or simply bad taste. It’s bad politics.

I realise (hope?) Trump isn’t going to contest another election, but he is queering the pitch for those of his MAGA associates who harbour presidential ambitions. Being close to Trump may turn out to be a kiss of political death. And if you don’t believe that, ask Pierre Poilievre and Victor Orbán. They’ll tell you.

The former was certain of victory in Canada, the latter hoped for one in Hungary, but then Trump campaigned for both. As a direct consequence they both lost, and Poilievre’s closeness to Trump was more perceived than real.

I wonder how JD Vance feels about his boss’s foray into AI imagery. Vance is clearly manoeuvring himself into the position of heir apparent, which means that, in the good tradition of US politics, he must stress his Christian credentials.

The Christianity JD wears on his sleeve, Roman Catholicism, is the wrong kind in the judgement of the predominantly evangelical religious Right. But the issue is less divisive than it was, say, in the 1950s. Faced with the onslaught of atheism, Christians of all denominations close political ranks behind fellow believers, even slightly misguided ones.

But I wonder how old JD is going to reply to the question that will be bound to pop up at every press conference: “Mr Vice President, how did you feel about that notorious AI image?”

Vance would then have either to disavow Trump, upsetting MAGA enthusiasts, or dismiss it all as a joke, upsetting just about everybody. Some choice. As Mr Hobson would say, “Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.”

The image was another salvo Trump fired in his on-going battle with Pope Leo XIV, who had the temerity to take issue with Trump’s war on Iran. Trump has responded with one deranged rant after another, eventually deciding that words alone wouldn’t do the trick.

The pontiff wouldn’t be silenced. In his latest criticism, one that provoked Trump’s pictorial reaction, His Holiness regretted that: “Too many people are suffering in the world today. Too many innocent people are being killed. And I think someone has to stand up and say there’s a better way.

“I will continue to speak out loudly against war, looking to promote peace, promoting dialogue and multilateral relationships among the states to look for just solutions to problems.”

A worthy intention, that, but one that strikes me as slightly naïve for this world’s politics. As Golda Meir once put it more realistically, “You can’t negotiate peace with people who want to kill you.” Iran’s powers that be definitely want to obliterate Israel and at least hurt the West as badly as they can, and their efforts to acquire nuclear weapons to that end won’t cease. Under such circumstances, any talk about “promoting dialogue and multilateral relationships” seems misplaced.

The confrontation between the pontiff and Trump brings back the memory of the late Middle Ages in Italy, when two factions, the Guelphs (supporters of the pope) and the Ghibellines (supporters of the Holy Roman Emperor) were at each other’s throats.

Typologically, Pope Leo is closer to those medieval pontiffs than Trump is to any Holy Roman Emperor, but some similarities are discernible. Actually, Trump’s criticism of the Pope isn’t entirely groundless in substance. But its form, both verbal and pictorial, is sheer madness, clinically speaking.

Trump’s latest incoherent 1,000-word rant alone is enough for men in white coats to rush in with their stretchers and straitjackets. One of the bizarre claims Trump made was that Leo wouldn’t be pope but for him. “He was only put there [on the list of candidates] by the Church because he was an American, and they thought that would be the best way to deal with President Donald J. Trump.”

I don’t think the Donald is sufficiently familiar with the papal job requirements. Dealing with US presidents certainly isn’t one of them, let’s just leave it at that.

Neither should it matter to the Church very much what Trump thinks of its head, but someone has forgotten to tell him that. “I don’t want a pope who criticizes the President of the United States because I’m doing exactly what I was elected, BY A LANDSLIDE, to do, setting Record Low Numbers in Crime, and Creating the Greatest Stock Market in History.”

Irrelevant if true, I’d suggest. I don’t think Pope Leo has a problem with low crime rates or an exuberant stock market. He objects, in my view wrongly, to the very idea of waging war on Iran.

Stating moral objections to war in general falls under the papal purview, although I don’t think out-and-out pacifism is theologically sound. Great Christian thinkers from Anselm, Augustine and Aquinas onwards certainly didn’t think so either.

But levelling criticism at this war specifically, from a bien pensant position of “promoting dialogue and multilateral relationships” really ought to be left to Guardian readers and writers. Jesus Christ, whose Vicar the Pope is, did say: “My kingdom is not of this world.” (John 18:36).

That means it’s higher than this world, and I wish His Holiness didn’t descend to squabbles with the likes of Trump. As for the latter, someone ought to remove him from the White House before he harms himself and others.

The man has gone way beyond malignant narcissism, an endearing trait Trump has displayed his whole life. He is certifiably bonkers now, incapable of considering the consequences of his words and deeds.

I wonder how long it will be before Republicans, even the MAGA types, turn against Trump. They may not want to support him to the bitter end if the end does look unpalatably bitter. I’m not sure many of them will be willing to put their political careers on the line for the sake of their increasingly unstable leader.

A revolt must be coming, but I don’t know if that will produce the two-thirds majority in the Senate required to impeach. Wait and see, is my usual refrain when it comes to Trump.