内容来源：https://www.theverge.com/column/912627/trump-jesus-ai-whcd-penguin-meme

内容总结：

特朗普再发AI合成"特朗普-耶稣"图引争议，白宫记者协会晚宴周现媒体行业生态缩影

近日，美国前总统特朗普在社交媒体上再次分享人工智能生成的图像，引发舆论关注。其中一幅将其描绘为耶稣基督形象，另一幅则显示他与耶稣在美国国旗前拥抱。特朗普对此表示"我觉得这很不错"，但相关图像此前已被删除。据悉，最初版本由一名支持者创作，但经特朗普分享前已被修改，部分细节被网友解读为包含"恶魔"意象。保守派评论人士罗德·德雷赫尔对此批评称，此举"散发着敌基督的精神"。

与此同时，一年一度的白宫记者协会晚宴周活动已成为观察媒体行业生态的窗口。多家媒体与科技公司合作举办活动，折射出行业资源整合趋势。例如，谷歌旗下YouTube与面临财务压力的C-SPAN联合举办招待会；《华盛顿人》杂志与卡塔尔大使馆合作举办高端活动；新兴时事通讯平台Beehiiv亦在奢侈品店举办活动。值得注意的是，由国会法案设立、旨在筹备美国建国250周年庆典的非营利组织"美国250"出现在电影协会派对赞助名单中。该组织已被多家科技公司赞助，并衍生出因捐款结构不透明而受质疑的"自由250"等组织。

另一方面，著名导演沃纳·赫尔佐格就其纪录片《世界尽头的奇遇》中"虚无主义企鹅"片段被特朗普团队用作网络表情包一事作出回应。赫尔佐格表示，虽然片段被脱离原语境使用，但这是"言论自由"的一部分，并形容那只企鹅"精神错乱"。该片段在影片上映18年后突然爆红网络的现象令他感到困惑。

此外，《大西洋月刊》一篇关于寻找全美最佳免费餐厅面包的特稿引发美食爱好者关注，其评选出的最佳面包位于华盛顿特区。

中文翻译：

大家好，欢迎来到《监管者》——这是为The Verge订阅者提供的通讯专栏，聚焦科技巨头在华盛顿乃至更远地带的权力博弈。（说到“更远地带”，我指的是那种遥远的彼岸，比如天堂之类的。）如果你是在网络漫游中偶然发现本专栏，目前年度订阅正享受五折优惠。每年仅需30美元，即可获取整个新闻编辑室关于科技及其如何“吞噬”社会的深度报道——绝不仅限于政治领域！

（也欢迎通过tina.nguyen+tips@theverge.com邮箱向我提供机密线索。）

特朗普又发布AI生成的特朗普-耶稣粉丝画了

另附：沃纳·赫尔佐格对“特朗普企鹅”迷因的看法。

没有“AI”就拼不出“敌基督”

在众多可能瓦解宗教右翼与唐纳德·特朗普联盟的事件中，最令人瞠目的莫过于他在攻击教皇利奥十四世仅数小时后，竟发布了一张AI生成的画像——画面中他化身耶稣基督医治病人，周身环绕着天使。（正如曾出席JD·万斯天主教洗礼的保守派评论员罗德·德雷赫告诉《华尔街日报》的：“不是说特朗普就是敌基督，但他无疑正散发着敌基督的气息。”）这次，制作这张图的并非白宫迷因军团。特朗普周一接收外卖时向记者承认，是他亲自将图片发布到Truth Social的。“我以为那是我扮成医生的样子。”他说。

但X用户S2_Underground发现了一件怪事：特朗普发布的图片并非全新。这张AI生成图的原始版本早在二月就由一位名叫尼克·亚当斯的MAGA网红发布，而当它流传到特朗普的账号时，已经历了几处诡异改动。最引人注目且迅速疯传的改动是：云层中漂浮的士兵变成了一个无面、尖头、带翅膀的生物，社交媒体用户立刻将其视作恶魔。此外还有几处更细微的变化：特朗普的国旗比亚当斯版本多了几颗星，战斗机看起来有些失真，背景建筑更模糊，所有人的面孔（包括特朗普的）都显得更恐惧而非慈祥。还有，一个人的“退伍军人”帽子变成了我同事欧文·格罗夫描述的“‘የቹ፪ጮጎል’帽子”。

那么从亚当斯发帖到特朗普转帖之间发生了什么？迷因高手们一如既往地守口如瓶。但众所周知，特朗普始终对自己社交媒体内容拥有最终决定权，其总统任期内顾问无法阻止他发布或转发个人所见内容的例子比比皆是。尽管原帖已被删除（这很罕见！），但白宫内任何试图阻止特朗普发布更多亵渎图像的人似乎都失败了：周三上午，特朗普又发布了一张来自粉丝的AI生成图，描绘他与耶稣在美国国旗前相拥。“激进左翼疯子可能不喜欢这个，”他写道，“但我觉得非常棒！！！”

华盛顿最热门的白宫记者晚宴周合作是……

这些年来我学到一个糟糕的华盛顿政治新闻圈内幕：通过一家媒体机构在白宫记者晚宴周活动的规模，大致能判断其经营状况。如果某年它能在大使官邸举办活动，次年却降级为“私人招待会”，这就是一个信号。如果它与其他媒体联合举办，很可能是在整合资源。如果与科技公司合办——这正日益流行——很可能暗含由科技公司买单的默契。

以下是我听说到的本轮活动中最感兴趣的媒体/科技合作：

• 周四，谷歌旗下财大气粗的YouTube与正面临流媒体崛起侵蚀有线利润而陷入财政危机的公共电视台C-SPAN，将在梅里迪安国际中心所属的华丽新古典主义宅邸梅里迪安之家联合举办招待会。（背景提示：梅里迪安之家是华盛顿社交攀爬者梦寐以求的婚礼场地。）
• 长期受地方媒体预算问题困扰的社交杂志《华盛顿人》，将与人均GDP最高的石油国家之一卡塔尔大使馆，共同举办其每年奢华的四季度假村派对。（总得有人为免费顶级威士忌买单。）
• 新兴通讯平台Beehiiv（Substack的竞争对手）将于周五在14街的Shinola店铺举办招待会。没错，酒水就摆在手表和笔记本旁边。
• 以比特币为主题的潜水酒吧PubKey（也是比特币政策研究所所在地）将承办创意联盟的“艺术持权”年度筹款晚宴。明星主持包括迈克尔·切克利斯和扎克瑞·莱维，门票起价1000美元。
• 虽非科技公司但同样令人侧目：据我看到的邀请函，America250将其名号冠名于电影协会的年度周五派对。该组织在特朗普步入政坛前很久由国会法案设立，本应是资助美国今年250周年庆典的无党派非营利机构，却演变为企业捐助者向第二届特朗普政府示好的众多非营利组织之一。去年，在特朗普引发争议的生日阅兵式前，亚马逊、甲骨文、Meta、Coinbase和Palantir等大公司纷纷成为America250的赞助商。
• 当然，如今已有更出格的非营利捐款渠道取代了America250，例如总统图书馆基金、东翼宴会厅基金以及Freedom 250——后者因其不透明的捐款结构、向捐助者承诺接触总统的机会，以及捐款是否流向America250的混淆问题而受到审查。（Freedom 250还负责组织更古怪的250周年半庆活动，例如6月14日白宫草坪上的UFC比赛和8月23日环绕华盛顿国家广场的印地赛车“自由250大奖赛”。）
• 据Axios报道，由科技亿万富翁杰夫·贝索斯拥有但2025年亏损1亿美元、今年初裁员约三分之一新闻编辑部的《华盛顿邮报》，已降级为在华盛顿希尔顿酒店举办传统的晚宴前招待会。颇具讽刺意味的是，去年它曾在会员制内德俱乐部为广告商举办了一场据称耗资百万美元的早午餐派对。

“那是只精神错乱的企鹅”

The Verge特稿编辑凯文·阮（非本人亲属）近期采访了著名导演沃纳·赫尔佐格，为其2010年纪录片《被遗忘的梦的洞穴》的6K IMAX重映预热。访谈大部分聚焦影片修复的困难，但我确实请凯文代问了赫尔佐格一个与我领域相关的超具体问题：如何看待特朗普政府社交媒体团队今年初用他《在世界尽头相遇》中的“虚无主义企鹅”片段制作推广MAGA民族主义意识形态的迷因？（在他们解读中，那只不断逃离群体独闯山区的企鹅是不墨守成规的自由思想家；而在2007年纪录片中，赫尔佐格形容这只企鹅“疯了”“精神错乱”“正奔向必然的死亡”。）

他们的对话如下：

我在你Instagram上看到你提到了这个——《在世界尽头相遇》里那只疯企鹅的片段好像获得了新生。不知你是否注意到特朗普政府和国土安全部把它做成了迷因？

沃纳·赫尔佐格：嗯，这很诡异。不止国土安全部或白宫，还有成千上万人用过它。[笑] 诡异之处在于，我18年前制作并发布了这部影片。18年来这个小片段一直是影片的一部分。为什么18年后的今天，它突然在互联网上爆发？为什么？你看到白宫也在用。我必须说我是言论自由的倡导者，也得承认白宫同样享有言论自由。所以这其实无伤大雅，因为——我称之为“合理使用”——仅仅几秒钟而已。对我来说这挺滑稽的。白宫发布它本身就是某种玩笑。

所以白宫把它当玩笑发布你不介意？完全脱离影片语境？我看了白宫和国土安全部的视频，他们似乎完全误解了这个场景甚至台词。

我是说，误解有八万种。如果只谈误解，那不重要。真正费解的问题是：为什么在影片发布18年后？而这些迷因未能传达的是：这是一个萦绕心头的悲伤故事。

我清楚记得影片中的这个场景，但当它作为国土安全部片段出现时显得如此怪异。他们好像在歌颂企鹅的独立性？

嗯，我也这么觉得。这只企鹅根本——我不会说它疯了。有个更贴切的词：精神错乱。它脱离了自身范畴。是只精神错乱的企鹅。就让它拥有数百种不同的解读、语境和独立生命吧。这令人困惑，你看，当白宫发布它时——我想他们只用了六七秒——我四天后才得知。我查看时，整个风波已经平息。网络事件总是转瞬即逝。它持续了48小时，然后就消失了。

现在，轻松一下。

我们The Verge团队一直在热议《大西洋月刊》凯蒂·韦弗这篇11000字特稿——她是我个人最喜爱的当代作家之一——关于她遍寻美国最佳免费餐厅面包的全国之旅。轻微剧透：她最终评选出的最佳面包来自华盛顿一家餐厅，我个人可以担保这面包确实惊艳。（虽然我对搭配的其他普通面包有意见，不过这无关紧要。）

致阅读《监管者》的烘焙爱好者：如果无法亲临供应这款面包的餐厅，据消息人士（即一位热衷家庭烘焙的华盛顿朋友）透露，这个食谱能高度还原这款面包。有条件不妨一试！

下周见。

英文来源：

Hello and welcome to Regulator, a newsletter for Verge subscribers about Big Tech power plays in Washington and beyond. (And when I say beyond, I mean the great beyond, like Heaven, maybe.) If you’ve found your way to this newsletter from the wild, annual subscriptions are currently 50 percent off. That’s $30 a year for access to an entire newsroom full of reporting about technology and how it’s eating society alive — not just in politics!
(I will also accept confidential tips at tina.nguyen+tips@theverge.com.)
Trump’s posting even more AI-generated Trump-Jesus fan art
Plus: what Werner Herzog thinks of the Trump penguin meme.
Plus: what Werner Herzog thinks of the Trump penguin meme.
You can’t spell “antichrist” without “AI”
Of all the things that would have fractured the religious right’s alliance with Donald Trump, it would be him posting an AI-generated image of himself styled as Jesus Christ, healing the sick and surrounded by heavenly angels — only hours after attacking Pope Leo XIV, no less. (As conservative commentator Rod Dreher, who attended JD Vance’s Catholic baptism, told The Wall Street Journal: “Not saying Trump is the Antichrist. But he’s radiating the spirit of Antichrist, no question.”) This time, it wasn’t the White House memelord army that had generated it. Trump admitted to reporters on Monday, while accepting a DoorDash delivery, that he’d posted the image to Truth Social. “I thought it was me as a doctor,” he said.
But X user S2_Underground discovered a curious thing: The image Trump posted wasn’t exactly new. A version of the AI-generated image had been initially posted by a MAGA influencer named Nick Adams back in February, but by the time it made its way to Trump’s feed, several odd transformations had occurred. The most notable one, which went viral, was that a soldier floating in the clouds had turned into a faceless, spiky-headed winged being that social media users immediately viewed as a demon. But there are several more subtle changes, too: Trump’s flag has more stars than the Adams one, the fighter jets look slightly off, the buildings in the background look blurrier, and everyone’s faces, including Trump’s, look more fearful and less benevolent. Plus, one man’s “VETERAN” hat turned into what my coworker Owen Grove described as “a ‘የቹ፪ጮጎል’ hat.”
So what happened between Adams’ post and Trump’s post? The memelords were tight-lipped, as always. But it’s well known that Trump has always had the final word on what ends up on his social media feeds, and the history of his presidencies is littered with examples of his advisers being unable to stop Trump from posting or reposting things he personally comes across. While the post has been deleted (rare!), it appears that anyone in the White House who’d be trying to stop Trump from posting more blasphemous images is failing to do so: On Wednesday morning, Trump posted yet another AI-generated image from a follower that depicted him and Jesus embracing in front of an American flag. “The Radical Left Lunatics might not like this,” he wrote, “but I think it is quite nice!!!”
DC’s hottest WHCD collabs are…
Here’s a terrible DC political journalism insider secret I’ve learned over the years: You can roughly gauge the health of a media company by the scale of its White House Correspondents’ Dinner-week event. If it’s scored an Ambassadors’ residence one year but downgrade to a “private reception” the next, that’s one sign. If it’s partnered with another outlet, they’re probably pooling resources. If it’s cohosting it with a tech company — an increasingly popular option — there’s probably a quiet agreement that the tech company is footing the bill.
Here’s some of my favorite media/tech collaborations I’ve heard about this cycle:

• On Thursday, YouTube, a very wealthy subsidiary of Google, and CSPAN, the public television station currently facing a financial crisis due to the rise of streaming services eating into cable profits, are cohosting a reception at Meridian House, a fabulous neoclassical mansion owned by the Meridian International Center. (For context, Meridian House is the dream wedding venue of DC social climbers.)
• Washingtonian magazine, a society publication that has long struggled with the same budget problems afflicting local media, is throwing its annual swanky Four Seasons shindig with the Embassy of Qatar, the petrostate with one of the highest GDP per capita. (Someone has to pay for the free top-shelf whiskey.)
• Beehiiv, an upstart newsletter company and Substack competitor, is hosting a Friday reception at the Shinola store on 14th Street. Yes, drinks are next to the watches and notebooks.
• PubKey, the bitcoin-themed dive bar that’s also home to the Bitcoin Policy Institute, will play host to The Creative Coalition’s “RightToBearArts” annual gala fundraiser. Celebrity hosts include Michael Chiklis and Zachary Levi, and tickets start at $1,000.
• Not a tech company, but an eyebrow-raising one nonetheless: America250 has attached its name to the Motion Picture Association’s annual Friday party, per an invitation I viewed. Established by an act of Congress long before Trump entered politics, America250 was supposed to be a nonpartisan nonprofit for funding America’s 250th anniversary this year, but it has evolved into one of the numerous nonprofits used by corporate donors to curry favor with the second Trump administration. Last year, major companies like Amazon, Oracle, Meta, Coinbase, and Palantir became America250 sponsors right before Trump’s controversial military parade (held on Trump’s birthday).
• Granted, more egregious nonprofit donation vehicles have supplanted America250, such as the presidential library fund, the East Wing ballroom fund, and Freedom 250, which has drawn scrutiny for its opaque donation structure and its promises of presidential access to donors — as well as confusion about whether donors are giving that money to America250 or not. (Freedom250 has also become the nonprofit organizing the odder semiquincentennial events, such as the June 14th UFC match on the White House lawn and the August 23rd Freedom 250 Grand Prix, an IndyCar race around the Washington Mall.)
• The Washington Post, which is owned by tech billionaire Jeff Bezos but lost $100 million in 2025, forcing it to lay off roughly a third of its newsroom earlier this year, has downgraded to a traditional pre-dinner reception at the Washington Hilton, according to Axios. This is ironic considering that last year, it threw a brunch party for advertisers at the members-only Ned’s Club that reportedly cost $1 million.
  “It’s a deranged penguin”
  Verge features editor Kevin Nguyen (no relation) recently interviewed famed director Werner Herzog in advance of the 6K IMAX rerelease of his 2010 documentary Cave of Forgotten Dreams. The vast majority of the interview centered on the difficulties of remastering that film, but I did ask Kevin if he could get Herzog’s opinion on a hyper-specific thing pertinent to my world. What did he think of the Trump administration social media teams using the “nihilist penguin” scene from his Encounters at the End of the World to make memes promoting MAGA nationalist ideology earlier this year? (In their telling, the penguin, which keeps running away from his colony and heads to the mountains alone, is a nonconformist free thinker; in the 2007 documentary, Herzog describes the penguin as “insane,” “deranged,” and “running towards certain death.”)
  Their conversation is below:
  I saw you acknowledge this on your Instagram — that the scene with the insane penguin from Encounters at the End of the World has kind of gotten a new life. I was wondering if you’ve seen that the Trump administration and the Department of Homeland Security have turned it into a meme.
  Werner Herzog: Well, it’s bizarre. It’s not only Homeland Security or the White House. There’s tens of thousands of others who have utilized it. [laughs] The bizarre thing about this is I made this film and released it 18 years ago. For 18 years this little sequence has been part of the film. Why is it that today after 18 years, all of a sudden, it explodes on the internet? Why is that? And you see the White House using it. I must say I’m an advocate of free speech and I have to concede free speech to the White House as well. So it doesn’t really hurt because it’s — I call it “fair usage” — a few seconds only. It’s rather hilarious for me. That the White House put it out is some kind of joke.
  So it doesn’t bother you that the White House put it out as some sort of a joke? Entirely divorced from the context of the film? I watched the White House and DHS clips. They seem to entirely misunderstand the scene or even the words.
  I mean, you have 80,000 misunderstandings. If you speak of misunderstandings, it doesn’t matter. The real puzzling question is, why 18 years after the film was released? And what doesn’t really come across in all these memes is it’s a heartbreaking story that sticks to you.
  I remember the scene very well in the context of the film and then when you see it as a clip from the Department of Homeland Security, it’s so strange. They’re, like, celebrating the independence of the penguin?
  Well, so do I. The penguin is simply — I would not say insane. I have a better word for it: deranged. It’s out of its range. It’s a deranged penguin. And let there be hundreds of different interpretations and contexts and a life of its own. It is puzzling and, you see, when the White House published it — and I think they use only six or seven seconds — I heard about it only four days later. I looked at it; by then the whole thing was already over. These events on the internet are very ephemeral. It lasted 48 hours and then it was gone.
  And now, Recess.
  We at The Verge have been talking nonstop about this 11,000-word feature from The Atlantic’s Caity Weaver — personally, one of my favorite writers working today — about her nationwide quest to find the best free restaurant bread in America. Mild spoilers ahead: It turns out that her top choice is served in a DC-based restaurant, and I can personally vouch that it is, indeed, an incredible bread. (I do have complaints about the other, mid breads that come along with it, but that is neither here nor there.)
  For any bakers who read Regulator and can’t make it to the restaurants that serve it, I’m told by a source (aka a DC friend who’s a passionate home baker) that this recipe is a very close dupe. Give it a shot if you can!
  See you next week.