"The View" co-host Joy Behar walked into a theological buzzsaw on Tuesday's broadcast when she declared that Jesus Christ never proclaimed himself to be the Messiah, and her own co-host Sara Haines shut it down in real time.
The exchange, reported by Fox News Digital, came during a segment about a since-deleted social media post from President Donald Trump. The post featured an AI-generated image that appeared to show Trump in white and red robes with what Fox News Digital described as "holy light emanating from his hands." Critics called it blasphemous. Trump said the image was meant to portray "me as a doctor."
But the real fireworks had nothing to do with Trump. They started when Behar decided to freelance on Scripture.
During the panel discussion, Behar offered her take on the difference between Trump and Jesus Christ. As Breitbart reported, Behar told her co-hosts:
"Yeah, but Jesus himself did not run around saying, 'I'm the Messiah, I'm the Messiah!'"
When challenged, she doubled down. "No he did not," Behar insisted. She added: "Jesus was not narcissistic like this guy."
Haines, sitting at the same table, wasn't having it. She fired back with a response rooted in the Gospel accounts themselves.
"When you are the Messiah, it's not narcissism to say it!"
Haines then cited specific biblical passages, telling viewers: "In Matthew and Mark in the Bible, Jesus alerts his disciples to not be deceived by false prophets who will claim themselves to be the Christ, performing great signs and wonders." She added, "That's exactly what Jesus said!"
The correction was pointed. Haines wasn't offering a vague disagreement. She named the books, named the teaching, and drew a direct line between the biblical text and the claim Behar had just made on national television. For anyone with even a passing familiarity with the Gospels, the exchange was lopsided.
Behar found little support from the rest of the table. Co-host Sunny Hostin agreed that some of Trump's supporters had treated him as something more than a political figure.
"Let's face it, some of his supporters have likened him to a savior-like figure. And I really hope at this point that they realize that he is a false prophet. No question about it."
Alyssa Farah Griffin took a different tack, quoting Christ directly: "Blessed are the peacemakers." Her point was that seeking peace, the kind of diplomacy Trump has pursued, was itself consistent with what Jesus preached.
It's worth noting that ABC's "The View" has faced scrutiny before for the way its hosts handle political and cultural commentary. This latest episode won't quiet those concerns.
Whoopi Goldberg, for her part, seemed eager to change the subject. Fox News Digital reported she interjected that she was "going to move this along." But not before offering her own commentary on Trump's post, telling the audience: "Nobody believes you were a doctor. Nobody. Not even your people. Your people don't believe it. Nobody believes it."
Goldberg also offered a more measured theological note: "The Pope has God with him," she said, and added, "God will take care of this. God will take care of him."
The discussion traced back to a weekend feud between Trump and Pope Leo XIV, described as the first American pontiff. Shortly after that public exchange, Trump posted the AI art image on social media. Fox News Digital reported the image seemed to portray Trump "as a Jesus-like figure healing the sick."
The post upset many Christians, Fox News Digital reported. Trump denied any intent to compare himself to the Messiah and said the image depicted him as a doctor. He later deleted the post. Fox News Digital said it reached out to the White House but did not receive an immediate response.
Haines, while correcting Behar on the theological question, also used the moment to criticize Trump. "Every time [Trump] does these things I can't help but, like, think it's really on-the-nose here," she said. "He's literally pretending to be the coming of Christ."
So even the co-host who got the Scripture right still framed the conversation as an indictment of Trump. That's the editorial tilt of "The View" in a single segment: everyone at the table agrees Trump is the problem, but they can't even get basic Christian theology straight along the way.
This wasn't a one-off stumble. "The View" has a long track record of wading into topics its hosts are not equipped to discuss, and doing so with the confidence of tenured professors. Whether the subject is constitutional law, foreign policy, or now the Gospels, the show's formula is the same: strong opinions, thin preparation, and a willingness to say whatever lands hardest in the moment.
Behar's claim that Jesus "did not run around" calling himself the Messiah is flatly contradicted by the Gospel of John, among other texts. That's not a matter of theological interpretation or denominational nuance. It's the kind of thing a five-minute search would have clarified before airtime.
The broader pattern matters. When Whoopi Goldberg found herself at the center of an Epstein-files controversy, the show pivoted to Trump. When faith-based topics arise, the instinct is the same: use religion as a prop to score political points, then move on before anyone checks the homework.
That instinct is what makes moments like Tuesday's exchange so revealing. The hosts weren't interested in what Scripture actually says. They were interested in using Scripture, or their garbled version of it, to attack a political opponent. When Behar got the facts wrong, the correction came not from any preparation or editorial standard, but from a co-host who happened to know her Bible better.
It's a reminder that public figures who invoke Christianity selectively often reveal more about their own assumptions than about the faith they're citing. Behar's version of Jesus, modest, quiet, never making bold claims about his identity, is a Jesus edited down to fit a political argument. It bears little resemblance to the figure described in the texts she was supposedly discussing.
And it's not just daytime television. Elected officials have made similarly reductive claims about Christianity when it suited their messaging. The pattern is consistent: invoke the faith when it's useful, dismiss or distort it when it's inconvenient.
Behar's gaffe will generate clips, memes, and a news cycle. It will fade. But the underlying dynamic won't. Millions of Americans take their faith seriously. They read their Bibles. They know what the Gospels say. And they notice when television personalities treat Scripture like a Wikipedia article they skimmed on the way to the studio.
Sara Haines, to her credit, did the work. She cited chapter and book. She pushed back in real time. That's more accountability than most segments on "The View" ever produce.
But one co-host knowing her Bible doesn't fix a show built on the assumption that its audience won't notice when the panel gets things wrong. Tuesday proved, again, that plenty of people are paying attention, and they have better sources than "The View."
If you're going to lecture the country about false prophets, it helps to have actually read the Book.
