Vance says Trump’s Jesus image post was a joke amid Vatican row

US Vice President JD Vance said on Monday that President Donald Trump’s controversial social media post depicting himself in the likeness of Jesus Christ was a "joke."

"I think the president was posting a joke, and of course, he took it down because he recognized that a lot of people weren't understanding his humor in that case," Vance said in an interview with Fox News, adding that the US president "likes to mix it up on social media."

"I actually think that's one of the good things about this President, is that he's not filtered. He doesn't send everything through a communications professional. He actually reaches out directly to the people," Vance said.

Trump on Monday deleted the post from his platform, Truth Social, which included an AI-generated image, amid an increasingly tense public row with Pope Leo that has grown since the US president joined Israel in attacking Iran at the end of February.

The US president defended the post, saying that " I did post it, and I thought it was me as a doctor, and had to do with Red Cross, there's a Red Cross worker there, which we support, and only the fake news could come up with that one."

Vance noted that there are "disagreements with the Vatican," saying that " We can respect the Pope. We certainly have a good relationship with the Vatican, but we're also going to disagree on substantive questions from time to time. I think that's a totally reasonable thing."

"It would be best for the Vatican to stick to matters of morality, to stick to matters of you know, what's going on in the Catholic Church, and let the President United States stick to dictating American public policy," he added.