The blue suit, and worse, the national flag in the lapel. The walking on the carpet. Possible mistakes. Especially odd, as there's a chance the host upended a centuries-old global diplomatic protocol to give him a better seat. The AI photo... Well. Imagine the next head of the church did the same with a threadbare Uncle Sam costume and a banjo. You get the idea.
Possible anger at decreased popularity among Catholics after several key appointments in the first term. But this was clearly (a) a sop to evangelicals; and (b) an attempt to spread an image, like the royalty-based ones, that unconsciously influences a public guided by the constant stream of images on the wires.
The image of the head of state had a peculiar effect in early modern times. It created a direct notion of power -- we use the word state as an extension of the physical presence of the sovereign, and this started at around that time. Although the facts are on point, this isn't like an embarrassing doodle in a royal sketchbook -- this image was AI on two levels -- first, on the technical rendering, but second, more important, a thought placed in people's heads. For some reason, I remember a newspaper article, many years ago, with an interview with a graffiti artist. He proudly pointed to his work and said: "See that? I just made you think that."