Staunch Trump Supporters Are Now Asking if He’s the Antichrist

In a case In recent days, MAGA media figures have gone from defending President Donald Trump as God’s chosen president to demonstrating that he is in fact the Antichrist.

The accusations came to a head Sunday evening, after Trump posted an AI-generated image depicting him wearing a white robe and red sash and placing a hand radiating golden light on a man in a hospital bed. The image, which Trump removed from Truth Social after about 2 p.m., appeared to invoke Jesus Christ, and it outraged some supporters who compared Trump’s behavior to the antichrist — a figure in Christian theology who opposes Christ and whose appearance many believe could portend the end times.

Major figures in the MAGA universe quickly spoke out. “It’s more than blasphemy. It’s an antichrist spirit,” former Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene said on X on Sunday.

“In 18 months, I went from hesitantly voting for Trump to thinking there’s a good chance he’s the Antichrist,” added Clint Russell, host of the right-wing podcast Liberty Lockdown.

“I truly believe that Trump is currently possessed by a demon,” wrote far-right Texas pastor Joel Webbon on X. Hours later, Webbon hosted a live discussion titled “Is Donald Trump the Antichrist?”

The Order of the Templars, a Christian organization based on a medieval military order, wrote of the post that they had “no choice but to condemn it without reservation and demand a public apology.”

For more than a decade, Trump and his supporters have used explicitly religious rhetoric and imagery to mobilize his base. But in recent weeks, some of Trump’s actions — from posts about the Vatican to posts about Iran on Easter Sunday — have caused a major schism among his supporters that could have lasting effects for him and the Republican Party.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment. At a press conference Monday, Trump denied that the image depicted him as Jesus, telling reporters that he thought the image depicted him as a doctor. “It’s supposed to be me, as a doctor, making people better,” Trump told reporters.

Several MAGA influencers have been claiming for some time now that Trump is the Antichrist. Conservative pundit Tucker Carlson, in a 43-minute opening monologue on his show last Monday, suggested that the administration’s war in Iran was also a war on the Christian faith. Carlson made the video in response to a Truth Social message from Trump over Easter, in which the president threatened to destroy important infrastructure in Iran. (“Open the fucking straits, you crazy bastards, or you’ll live in hell,” Trump wrote. “JUST LOOK! Praise Allah.”) Although he never uttered the word “antichrist” during the video, people ranging from MAGA media figures like Alex Jones to users of the DonaldTrump666 subreddit thought Carlson was insinuating that Trump was the antichrist.

This rhetoric marks a significant shift for Carlson. Although he has become more critical of the president and his administration recently, Carlson has long used religious language to support Trump. At the 2024 Republican National Convention, Carlson claimed that Trump survived the assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, through “divine intervention.”

Trump also claimed divine intervention after the incident, as did many of his allies. Robert Jones, president and founder of the Public Religion Research Institute, told WIRED that frequent depictions of Trump as a messianic figure helped bring MAGA to a breaking point. “The reason why people searched [the antichrist label] it’s because Trump himself set the stage for this,” says Jones.