JD Vance did his 40 days and nights of fasting, but he is still lost in the desert. Currently at odds with Donald Trump for making the mistake of thinking he was serious about this whole “no new wars” thing, the vice president has two people whispering in his ear offering guidance: the Pope, the most important earthly figure in his deep faith, and Peter Thiel, the billionaire who made him relevant.
Unfortunately for Vance, the two are diametrically opposed forces. In one corner is Pope Leo XIV, the first American Pope with a decidedly pro-human agenda in the age of artificial intelligence; a Pope who should have some real appeal for a politician actively promoting a book about his adult conversion to Catholicism. In the other corner is Thiel, a billionaire weirdo who has been lecturing about the Antichrist and reportedly accused the Pope of being in league with the figure empowered by Satan to bring about the downfall of the global order: an oligarch who seems more interested in AI than the survival of humanity.
It seems like it should be a pretty easy choice, but one man promises a kingdom in the afterlife and the other promises it in this life, and Vance doesn’t seem to know which he values more.
It is clear that he feels the attraction of both sides.
The Pope recently published his encyclical on artificial intelligencewhich centered humanity and warned of the “risk of being deceived by misleading objectives” that can arise from the “increasing dominance of a technocratic paradigm” (and incited the tech bros with a reference to JRR Tolkien and a reading of his works that directly conflicts with Thiel and Elon Musk’s interpretation of the author’s work).
Vance, speaking to NBC News, praised the papal statement. “What I read sounds very profound, and it’s the kind of thing you would expect and desire from a church leader,” he said. he told the media. “The thing about morality is that the principles never change, but the way those principles are applied does, because the world changes, right?” He credited Pope Leo XIV for recognizing that the world is changing and working to “rethink all Catholic social teaching in light of the new world in which we live.”
That probably doesn’t sit too well with Thiel, who would find it difficult not to feel attacked by the Pope’s encyclical, and not just because he has a persecution complex. TO recent Leo Letters reportA publication that follows the Pope revealed that Thiel told Vance to ignore the Pope’s moral advice, including on the ethics of AI.
Thiel doesn’t necessarily need Vance if he has Trump on his side, and it’s clear that Trump is much more malleable on AI issues: recently removed an executive order to regulate AI models at the behest of the tech industry. But it seemed like Vance was supposed to be the man in waiting who would take office after Trump and solidify all of Thiel’s preferred policies. Now the two appear to be diverging.
There is no reason to assume that Vance is saved in this regard: the pull of power is strong and Thiel has a billion ways to put his finger on the scale. But maybe, just maybe, Vance is starting to experience a real break from Trump’s world. AI “raises such profound questions about how we interact with each other, what kind of skills we need in the workforce, the kind of wars we will fight and how we will fight our wars,” the vice president told NBC. “I think we really need moral leadership to reflect on those questions, and that’s exactly what the church is the best leader to do.”
It already looks like yours The 2028 presidential bid is dead on arrivaland there really aren’t many places he can go after the vice presidency, if not move up. So maybe you’re considering just jumping ship and giving your genuine beliefs a chance.
Unfortunately, Vance has more demons than shoulders, and there is a powerful force waiting in the wings. He says he deleted Elon Musk’s X from his phone during Lent and that the change has made him feel “healthier.” His staff has been posting on his behalf, but plans to reinstall the app at some point in the future. “One of the good things about social media is that it actually exposes you to raw, unfiltered opinions, and that’s one of the things I need to hear as a political leader,” he said. Jumping back into the cesspool of X could be enough to turn even the most faithful away from the light of the Lord.
