JD Vance Angrily Defends 'Pope Trump' Meme as 'Fine'
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Vice President JD Vance went on offense defending the already-infamous "Pope Trump" meme in a post on his X account over the weekend after being tagged by The Bulwark's Bill Kristol .
Archbishop of New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan condemned the meme image, which depicts President Donald Trump as a Pope and was posted on the president's social media just days after the death of the actual Pope, with whom Vance had so recently met.
But unlike the Cardinal, Vance took offense to the taking of offense by Kristol, and snapped back with a swipe at Kristol's support for the invasion of Iraq during former president George W. Bush's term in office.
Kristol shared the screenshot of Trump's Truth Social post featuring the image, which had gone viral, and tagged the Catholic VP to call him out.
"Hey, @JDVance, you fine with this disrespect and mocking of the Holy Father?" Kristol wrote.
Hey, @JDVance, you fine with this disrespect and mocking of the Holy Father? https://t.co/xbPs1hf5Gn
— Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) May 3, 2025
Vance quote-replied to the taunt a few hours later.
"As a general rule, I'm fine with people telling jokes and not fine with people starting stupid wars that kill thousands of my countrymen," Vance said.
As a general rule, I'm fine with people telling jokes and not fine with people starting stupid wars that kill thousands of my countrymen. https://t.co/2WQPsofVIH
— JD Vance (@JDVance) May 3, 2025
Still later that day, Kristol replied.
And I'm fine with people who do really care what happens to Ukraine one way or another, and with people who don't support the AfD. https://t.co/fVzL83Rasd
— Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) May 4, 2025
At the time of publication, Vance had not replied further in the argument.
Earlier in the week, Vance was asked by a reporter for his feelings on being one of the last people to see Pope Francis alive.
"I think it was a great blessing," Vance said. "I try to just remember that I was lucky that I got to shake his hand and tell him that I pray for him every day. Because I did, and I do."
Tags:Bill KristolDonald TrumpJD VancePope Francis Previous PostNext Post Previous PostNext Post Caleb Howe - Contributing Editor
Caleb Howe is an editor and writer focusing on politics and media. Former managing editor at RedState. Published at USA Today, Blaze, National Review, Daily Wire, American Spectator, AOL News, Asylum, fortune cookies, manifestos, napkins, fridge drawings...
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When Bill Maher makes fun of the pope or ridicules religion it might be funny, when the president of the United States does it is disturbing. I dont remember when Vance converted to Catholicism but I believe it was within the last couple years and I have to wonder why. Conservative catholics , which one assumes Vance is, dont find Trumps prank funny at all. There may be some liberal Catholics who dont mind a laugh at the vaticans expense, but traditional conservative catholics take this stuff seriously.
But Vance cant get his head out of Trumps ass long enough to independently breathe let alone take exception to Trump playing pope.
Seriously. The “only catholic when it can be used against trump crowd” and “bigots who use slurs against the church all the time except when they want to attack trump crowd” really are getting worked up over this.
Vance's reply was great. Kristol makes trump look like a paragon of integrity. No wonder he’s so popular in the left wing fever swamps.
MAGA is losing it. Nothing on this earth can make Trump appear to have any integrity.
Trump is such a lying cowardly sack of shit he cant even man up and take responsibility for something he posted.
I'm a lapsed Catholic and I don't find this stunt finny at all. And JD Vance to call out Kristol for something that happened decades ago is silly. It was Vance's kind of people who voted for that awful war
What is amazing is that I have seen some of the nastiest attacks on Christians on this site, yet now I see outrage on behalf of the Pope by many of the same.
The best as I can tell there are very few people on this site that would be described as traditionally religious , but that hardly disqualifies them from commenting on an issue of importance to other people who are religious , or Catholic.
If an edgy comedian made fun of the papacy it would be understandable, when the president of the United States does it, for his own aggrandizement, it is disturbing.
I have seen some of the nastiest attacks on Christians on this site, yet now I see outrage on behalf of the Pope by many of the same.
Lol - no, you haven’t. “Many”? Seriously?! I’ve probably publicly called your god a twat twice a week for the last five decades. Because I can, because not a damn thing will happen when I do. You probably think that is an attack on your Christianity. I’m sure as hell not outraged by Trump’s very public displays of his low IQ, and definitely not on behalf of the pope. This site is minuscule as far as chat boards go. Who are these many outraged Christian bashing Pope defenders?
When will the moronic leftwing media stop falling for obvious trolling? I don't think the stupid fuckers will ever learn.
We have had US presidents for almost 250 years, and none before your god were considered trolls . Now you want people to accept the president is a lying buffoon and deal with it. A brave new world ?
John, I don't worship politicians, that more of a liberal thing, your messiah turned out to be more of an anti-christ and trump is trolling the left for their idolization of false gods.
“…trump is trolling…”
That will get you deleted hereabouts and yet is deemed somehow acceptable for the president to exhibit such puerile behavior. It is beyond comprehension.
It is perfectly obvious why Vance would defend the meme, he is as unstable, lacking in respect for anything except Trump's behind and immoral as Trump is - the meme was a totally classless act.
And what was the point of him posting it?
…just another case of BOTulism, by george..
Just another ignorant comment that just lowers the bar, and doesn't Raz it one bit.
Trump is a retard.
www.wonkette.com /p/maga-weirdos-argue-amongst-themselves
MAGA Weirdos Argue Amongst Themselves Over Lib-Owning Power Of Pope Trump Meme
Robyn Pennacchia 5-6 minutes 5/5/2025
One of the primary effects of the the Left leaving Xitter en masse is that now, due to their well-known inability to Google or gather information on anything beyond what is shoved directly in their faces, the Trumpian Right has pretty much had to make up their own storylines about what the Left is doing and feeling about things. Unsurprisingly, they’re not great at it.
Over the weekend, the official White House account posted an AI picture of Trump as the Pope, because this administration is all about exuding the energy of a 14-year-old incel shitposter. However, instead of hurting “the right people” ( i.e. us), it ended up upsetting a lot of Republicans of the Catholic persuasion instead. In hopes of correcting for this, the most loyal of his acolytes took it upon themselves to either claim that these Republicans were, in fact, the very libs they had hoped would be hurt by the meme, or by assuring them that a small amount of blasphemy was worth the incredible joy of seeing liberals get upset about it.
The very conservative Cardinal Timothy Dolan was asked about the image and, in a video posted to social media by a journalist for the New York Archdiocese, said that he hoped Trump didn’t have anything to do with it (which he obviously did, as it was also posted to his personal Truth Social account) and that it wasn’t good.
However, because he’s clearly a coward, Dolan was more harshly critical of it in a very bad Italian accent, calling it a “ brutta figura ,” which basically means he thought Trump made a bad impression/made an ass out of himself. Nevertheless, the Trumpists responding were very upset about the fact that he criticized Trump in this way after never having criticized Joe Biden for anything, which is not even remotely true.
“Cryyyyyyyyy leftist commies!! We voted for your pathetic tears to flow every single day. And we're getting EXACTLY what we've voted for,” one very well-adjusted person wrote in response to the meme.
“Watching libs melt down over the Trump Pope meme is another example of how Trump controls the narrative and lives rent free in their heads, any time he chooses. This is what I voted for,” said another.
It’s true — that is what they voted for. So much so that when it’s not actually happening, they have to pretend it is anyway.
“Anyone who thinks this is funny because he’s ‘totes owning the libs!’ needs help,” wrote a pro-DeSantis/anti-Trump user named Holly .
“It's funny because you [sic?] causes you physical pain and discomfort. If it didn't, you wouldn't being crying about it on social media,” said one Trump supporter.
“Liberal tears are the best tears,” said another, who clearly didn’t see the “ #TaxationIsTheft #NewPatriot #NewFederalist #DeSantisDelivers #PoliticallyHomeless ” in her bio.
“Wonderful to see how easily you get owned,” said another.
“Whoever you are, everyone who knows you knew that your brain was melting down the moment they saw this. That was the funny part. Your confirmation is not as funny though,” said another.
“Lol, you took the bait. Triggered,” said another.
This is, more or less, what “X” is now. It’s Republicans accusing one another of being “triggered libs” and delighting in the pain they imagine they are causing “the other side.” Meanwhile, all I really saw about it on my own socials were images like these, with no tears to be seen.
Frankly, what I saw a lot more of were people talking about whether or not the Pope was as left as he got credit for, or how the Popemobile was being turned into a mobile health clinic for children in Gaza, as per one of his last wishes. Sure, some people rolled their eyes about Trump’s sad papal cosplay, tendency to behave more like a 4chan poster than a president, or made comments about how such a move was “beneath” the office, especially given that it was posted by the actual White House account, but no one was particularly outraged or surprised. It would be far more surprising if he behaved “appropriately.”
But that’s not very fun for them .
Of course, it’s pretty understandable that they’re trying to eke out any amount of joy they can at the moment, when the economy is in crisis, prices are going up and even they are getting fucked over eight ways from Sunday. All the have left, at this point, is the dream of “owning the libs,” and since we’re not around them to give them that satisfaction, they have to imagine it’s happening anyway — or point to the Catholic conservatives outraged by Trump’s behavior and imagine that they are the triggered libs of their dreams.
It’s certainly one way to get through the day.
He has to back his dictator on day one and every day or Vance himself may get fired.
Even if Trump allows a staff member to operate his official social media accounts, no one accepts responsibility for poor taste or any other insulting thing that gets posted. He would have to admit he made a mistake allowing others to meme for him and he never admits failures.
Funny - Obama allowed and even participated in Billery's basement IT shop.
Oops forgot - Dems never do any thing out of the box.