Ex-Fox News host on Trump's Jesus post: 'Maybe he thinks he's a really important figure'

A political analyst was stunned on Monday after President Donald Trump retreated from his religious snafus over the weekend.

Trump posted on Truth Social on Sunday that Pope Leo XIV is "weak" on crime and foreign policy, and that Trump "doesn't want" a Pope who criticizes him or his administration's war with Iran. Trump also posted, and then deleted, a photo of himself appearing as Jesus Christ while healing a man lying on a bed. Both posts generated significant criticism from analysts and lawmakers.

Gretchen Carlson, a former Fox News anchor, discussed the posts on "Erin Burnett OutFront" on Monday.

Burnett asked Carlson why she thought Trump made the posts.

"The first thing that came to me was because the Pope is more popular," Carlson said. "And in fact, today, right here on CNN, you showed a poll where the approval rating of Pope Leo in America is very high, and the approval rating of Donald Trump currently is low. And that is sort of what makes Trump click on a daily basis, he tends to take his ill feelings out on people who are more popular or who he deems to be having more success at the time."

Carlson added that she was surprised Trump received so much backlash from the posts.

"With regard to getting into religion, do I think it's going to have any impact? Probably not," Carlson said. "In normal times, I would have said yes, but he's gotten away with so much else. He makes fun of disabled people. He makes fun of people with autism. He made fun of Michelle and Barack Obama as apes. I'm actually surprised he took the post down."

"I'm not so sure that he doesn't totally think that he is some sort of really, really important figure," she added. "And maybe he had no understanding that it would have this kind of backlash."