Catholic convert JD Vance refused to feed into Donald Trump’s delusions following a controversial Truth Social post by the president last month depicting him as Jesus.
Trump, 79, sparked uproar last month when he posted, then deleted, an AI-generated image that depicted him bathed in what appeared to be divine light streaming from his hands as he stood over a hospital patient.
The unhinged image featured patriotic imagery such as American flags and bald eagles, alongside a nurse, soldier, and praying woman. A demonic-looking figure hovered in the background. Following accusations of blasphemy, Trump bizarrely said: “It’s supposed to be me as a doctor making people better.”
The vice president, 41, who calls himself a “baby Catholic,” was put on the spot in an interview with NBC News about Trump’s apparent Jesus comparison in light of his own faith. He was asked if he sees any parallels between Trump and a character in a parable by philosopher Basil Mitchell that he previously cited as influential to his religious thinking. In the story, a partisan places trust in a “stranger” widely interpreted as representing God or Jesus.
NBC News asked Vance if he saw similarities between the “stranger” and Trump—and he was not willing to go that far.
“I am certainly not going to compare the stranger in the parable who ultimately is Jesus to the president of the United States, as much as I love the president,” Vance told the publication on Tuesday.
Vance suggested Trump supporters had grown to trust what they see as the president’s “method.”
“I guess people on the internet call it ‘trust the plan,’ right?” Vance said. “There are plan-trusters out there, and I think that’s important, because to get anything done, sometimes it takes a long time, and sometimes it takes patience. And I think that we are blessed to have a political movement where there are a lot of people who are patient, who don’t expect that they’re always going to get immediate results.”
The timing of Trump’s AI-generated post raised eyebrows as it coincided with a highly public dispute involving Pope Leo, the American-born pontiff who has been highly critical of the administration’s war with Iran.
Trump doubled down when he later shared an AI-generated image depicting himself as the chosen one, saying on Truth Social: “The Radical Left Lunatics might not like this, but I think it is quite nice!!!!”
Vance converted to Catholicism at the age of 35 after being raised as an evangelical. In 2019, he told Rod Dreher, a right-wing writer and Orthodox Christian, that “his views on public policy and what the optimal state should look like are pretty aligned with Catholic social teaching.”
“I saw a real overlap between what I would like to see and what the Catholic Church would like to see,” he said.
Despite his faith, Vance has frequently clashed with Vatican authorities over Trump’s brutal immigration policies, which many Catholic advocates argue conflict with Christian teaching.
