Former Fox News host Gretchen Carlson on Wednesday told CNN’s Erin Burnett that she believes Donald Trump’s recent controversial religious-themed posts actually carry a troubling message.

Trump initially sparked outrage across the political spectrum after sharing an AI-generated image of himself as Jesus healing a sick man, which he posted amid his attacks on Pope Leo XIV. The backlash forced him to delete it, before he bizarrely claimed he thought it made him look like a doctor.

But on Wednesday, Trump doubled down, posting another image showing Jesus embracing him, alongside the caption: “The Radical Left Lunatics might not like this, but I think it is quite nice!!!”

Carlson interpreted the follow-up post as Trump possibly thinking that “maybe it’s not appropriate for me to actually be Jesus but I will be right next to him and he will be hugging me.”

“The deep implication here, of course, is that he is either an equal to Jesus or a very, very close friend,” she added.

“I do think that there’s a deeper meaning here, with him, because he’s continuing down this storyline,” she continued. “Some of his supporters do think of him as a savior, of sorts — and so now he’s continuing to push that imagery out there.”

“I think it’s a little scary, quite honestly, that we’re to a point now where just three weeks ago his spiritual adviser called him Jesus, and there was no admonishment of that — and now he’s continuing down this path,” Carlson said. “Where do we end up with this?”

Watch Carlson’s analysis here:

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