The cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church will meet in conclave on May 7 at the Vatican to elect a successor to Pope Francis, who died on April 21 at the age of 88.
It's supposed to be a solemn time for reflection on the legacy of the papacy and the future of the church.
But for President Donald Trump, it's an opportunity ‒ not to be the next pope but to distract you from the developing damage he has brought to America's economy.
That's the clear motivation for Trump's latest attempt to troll America, posting on his social media platform Truth Social about 10:30 p.m. on May 2 what appears to be an artificial intelligence rendering of Trump as pope, with the traditional white vestments, white and gold mitre, and a large gold crucifix around his neck.
That offended plenty of people, including Catholic Church officials. And that was the point.
It's easy to be distracted by Trump's social media antics, which are now past the point of poor taste and have lapsed into the range of blasphemy. That's what Trump wants.
Here's the trick to decoding Trump's distraction tactics ‒ look and listen for the conversation Trump doesn't want you to tune in on. If he's trying to distract you, determine what he wants you to look away from.
This time, it was easy to find.
NBC News, just an hour before Trump tried to troll us with his pope picture, had started to release on social media video clips and details about his interview on "Meet The Press" that was airing on May 4. One slice of that ‒ Trump telling moderator Kristen Welker that he'd be "OK" if America went into a recession in the short term ‒ was starting to go viral as social media commenters expressed outrage at his nonchalance.
Remember here that Trump, who was a shady businessman with a history of bankruptcies before NBC's "The Apprentice" ‒ irony alert ‒ rewrote his narrative to be an economic genius in the absurdly genre of "reality television," now sees every day of his life as an episode in a television show where he is either winning or losing.
Shrugging off a recession was a bad look. Trump knew it and needed a plot twist. If he couldn't win the day, maybe he could distract us from how he was losing. A picture as pope, posted for his 9.7 million followers on Truth Social, would get that done.
But to really change the subject, Trump was going to need a boost. The White House's official account on X, with about 1.7 million followers, reposted Trump's pope picture nearly 40 minutes after he put it up.
That's the thing about Trump's trolling absurdities ‒ they always need amplification. Attention is the fuel for distraction. That's where outrage comes in handy.
The Catholic bishops of New York state took umbrage at Trump's pope picture, posting this response on X: "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. Do not mock us."
Their displeasure is understandable. But understand also that it plays into Trump's need to distract.
This might be a good point to note that Trump, while campaigning in 2024 for reelection, accused then-President Joe Biden of "persecuting" Catholics. Try to imagine Biden, a devout Catholic, posting a picture of himself as pope to distract from a negative news cycle. He'd never go there.
But Trump, who isn't Catholic, has always been a skilled salesman. The Associated Press in November found that Trump increased his votes from Catholics from 2020 to 2024.
But that was last year. That election is over. If mocking Catholics is useful now, then why not? Trump clearly thinks it is.
Trump's Republican Party these days breaks down into three camps for his displays of tactical stupidity on social media. The MAGA base cheers for outrage, his deferential congressional allies stay silent, and the true conservatives in America shake their heads at what the GOP has become.
The journal Nature Communications, in a report published a week after Trump lost the 2020 presidential election to Biden, noted that Trump had used social media posts to distract Americans and shift focus for the media, including when there was news about then-special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
"We find that increased media coverage of the Mueller investigation is immediately followed by Trump tweeting increasingly about unrelated issues," the authors of that study wrote. "This increased activity, in turn, is followed by a reduction in coverage of the Mueller investigation ‒ a finding that is consistent with the hypothesis that President Trump's tweets may also successfully divert the media from topics that he considers threatening."
Keep that in mind the next time Trump tries to distract you with outrageous antics. Don't just lean into the fury. Step back and look for the larger context.
Ask yourself what exactly Trump needs you to look away from. Then, study the topic he wants you to ignore. Learn what he fears so much that he needs a stupid stunt to make you look away.
Follow USA TODAY columnist Chris Brennan on X, formerly known as Twitter: @ByCrisBrennan. Sign up for his weekly newsletter, Translating Politics, here.