Vice President J.D. Vance, last month, visited Pope Francis at the Vatican, and the pontiff passed away hours later.
Now, a new pope has been elected, and it turns out he’s been a critic of Vance and of Donald Trump in the past.
The X account of the newly elected Pope, whose pre-papal name was Robert Prevost, has frequently been critical of Trump-era immigration policies, just as Pope Francis was.
The most recent post on the account is from April 14. It represents a repost of a message from Rocco Palmo, a Philadelphia-based lay commentator and expert on Vatican politics: “As Trump & Bukele use Oval to [laugh] at Feds’ illicit deportation of a US resident (bit.ly/3ROMjnP), once an undoc-ed Salvadorean himself, now-DC Aux +Evelio asks, ‘Do you not see the suffering? Is your conscience not disturbed? How can you stay quiet?'”
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The X account was verified and established in 2011; Palmo confirmed it is a genuine account belonging to the new pontiff.
As Trump & Bukele use Oval to 🤣 Feds’ illicit deportation of a US resident (https://t.co/t80iDMbBKf), once an undoc-ed Salvadorean himself, now-DC Aux +Evelio asks, “Do you not see the suffering? Is your conscience not disturbed? How can you stay quiet?” https://t.co/jTradMfr0v
— Rocco Palmo (@roccopalmo) April 14, 2025
Other past posts on the new pope’s account, amidst wishes and prayers for the health of Pope Francis, have included multiple links to op-eds in Catholic publications that have been critical of Vance specifically, including one whose headline begins “J.D. Vance is wrong”:
JD Vance is wrong: Jesus doesn’t ask us to rank our love for others https://t.co/hDKPKuMXmu via @NCRonline
— Robert Prevost (@drprevost) February 3, 2025
That post represented the first the future pope made to that account in nearly eight months.
The vice president, for his part, congratulated the new pope:
Congratulations to Leo XIV, the first American Pope, on his election! I’m sure millions of American Catholics and other Christians will pray for his successful work leading the Church. May God bless him!
— JD Vance (@JDVance) May 8, 2025
Leo XIV is, in fact, the first-ever American pope, born in Chicago in 1955, and educated at Villanova University, graduating in 1977. He was ordained as a priest in 1982.
And despite his tongue-in-cheek wishes to be considered for the papacy himself, President Trump also congratulated the new pope on Thursday:
“It is such an honor to realize that he is the first American Pope,” the president said on Truth Social. “What excitement, and what a Great Honor for our Country. I look forward to meeting Pope Leo XIV. It will be a very meaningful moment!”
Photo courtesy of the Political Tribune media library.
