By Katherine Tinsley
8:31am PDT, May 6, 2025
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"That was just dopey," O'Reilly told NewsNation's Leland Vittert on a Monday, May 5, episode of On Balance. "There was no excuse for that… The guy just died, you know?"
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One week after attending Pope Francis' funeral, Donald Trump took to his Truth Social account on Friday, May 2, to upload the digitally altered image.
"He thought it was funny," Bill O'Reilly said. "Some people do think it's funny, but he's the president. I would've advised against it had I been consulted, which I was not."
"I didn't think it was smart because it offended a lot of elderly Catholics who voted for him," the conservative commentator added.
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George W. Bush's former Senior Advisor
Karl Rove was also disturbed by the image.
"Tweeting out a picture of you as the pope is deeply offensive to a great many people," he stated, according to
The Daily Beast.
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The New York State Catholic Conference released a statement acknowledging Donald Trump's post.
"There is nothing clever or funny about this image, Mr. President. We just buried our beloved Pope Francis and the cardinals are about to enter a solemn conclave to elect a new successor of St. Peter," the organization shared. "Do not mock us."
Donald Trump later told reporters on Monday, May 5, that Catholics didn't laugh at the photo, as they "can't take a joke," according to
PBS.
"I had nothing to do with it," Trump added. "That's not me that did it."
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Bill O'Reilly told NewsNation that Donald Trump appeared "tired" while defending himself.
"That leads to statements that maybe you want to take back," O'Reilly said, as they dissected the president's response to the criticism.
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Bill O'Reilly later predicted "there is no strategy" to Donald Trump's social media activity.
"Donald Trump is not a calculated speaker," O'Reilly continued. "He doesn't sit around with his advisers saying, 'What should I say?' He says anything he wants to say."
"Rich guys say anything they want to say," he shared. "And since he fits into the category, from the time he's been 7 years old, he's said whatever he wants to say."
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Bill O'Reilly later touched upon Donald Trump's tariffs and trade war, and later claimed he was asking Americans to "sacrifice" a little bit to "bring China to its economic knees."
"I think that's what the comment was," he continued. "But who the deuce knows? The worse thing was the Pope picture. That was really beyond the pale."
