Donald Trump is set to give a televised Bible reading on Tuesday - 10 days after posting an AI-generated image of himself appearing as a Jesus-like figure and calling Pope Leo XIV 'weak on crime'

Donald Trump is set to give a televised Bible reading amid his rift with Pope Leo XIV, who has been a vocal critic of the US and Israeli war on Iran.

The US president will read verses 11-22 of Chapter 7 of the Second Book of Chronicles at 6pm EST (11pm BST) on Tuesday, as part of 'America Reads the Bible', a week-long initiative marking the 250th anniversary of the United States. The event serves as a "spiritual celebration of our nation’s founding ideals and a call to rediscover the truth that still anchors us today", according to the initiative’s website.

Tensions have been building for months between Trump and Leo, but have escalated in recent weeks, with Senator John Kennedy condemning what he referred to as the president's "holy war" against the Pope.

Leo said on April 7 that Trump's threats to destroy Iranian civilisation were "unacceptable" and that any attacks on civilian infrastructure violate international law. He called on people around the world to urge their political representatives to bring an end to the war in the Middle East.

Five days later, Trump sparked backlash across the US political spectrum, including from some of his own supporters, when he posted - and later deleted - an AI-generated image of himself as a Jesus-like figure appearing to heal a sick man in a hospital bed.

Less than an hour before posting the image on April 12, Trump unleashed a tirade against the Pope on Truth Social, describing him as "WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy".

He continued: "I don’t want a Pope who thinks it’s OK for Iran to have a Nuclear Weapon. I don’t want a Pope who thinks it’s terrible that America attacked Venezuela, a Country that was sending massive amounts of Drugs into the United States and, even worse, emptying their prisons, including murderers, drug dealers, and killers, into our Country."

Trump also suggested that the pontiff was elected "because he was American, and they thought that would be the best way to deal with President Donald J Trump". "If I wasn’t in the White House, Leo wouldn’t be in the Vatican," he added.

The following day, Leo told reporters on board the papal plane that he had "no fear of the Trump administration" or "speaking out loudly of the message of the Gospel, which is what I believe I am here to do".

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian condemned what he described as the "desecration of Jesus" while voicing support for the Pope. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni - who is a Catholic, the leader of a right-wing coalition government and a close ally of Trump - said the president's remarks about the Pope were "unacceptable".

"The Pope is the head of the Catholic Church, and it is right and normal for him to call for peace and to condemn every form of war," Meloni said in a statement. She had thus far been reluctant to condemn Trump's criticism of the Pope.

Trump shared another AI-generated religious-style depiction of himself on April 15, accompanied by a caption from the original post stating that "God might be playing his Trump card".

The president posted a screenshot on his Truth Social account of an X post showing a Jesus-like figure embracing him. The image, posted by an account named "Irish for Trump" (@Dkelly4congress), depicts a long-haired, bearded figure resembling Jesus standing beside Trump with both arms around him.

The X post is captioned: "I was never a very religious man... but doesn’t it seem, with all these satanic, demonic, child sacrificing monsters being exposed... that God might be playing his Trump card!"