Vice President JD Vance met with Pope Francis Sunday, just hours before the progressive pontiff passed. Coincidence? Yes—but good luck telling that to the internet, which won’t stop joking that Donald Trump’s antagonistic ally had something to do with it.
During his 12-year papacy, the pope was an advocate for the rights of LGBTQ+ people and Palestinians and a staunch critic of Trump’s MAGA agenda. He even openly spoke against Vance, who tried to refashion Catholic teaching to justify Trump’s massive deportation scheme.
Suffice it to say, the internet is now suggesting that Vance made quick work vanquishing the Vicar of Christ.
Not everyone was accusing him of doing something, just asking questions.
But people on X certainly had their theories. Specifically, that Vance might be the Antichrist.
Others weren’t quite as convinced.
To be sure, not everyone was suggesting that Vance had carried out some kind of unholy hit. But he certainly didn’t help things.
Some suggested there could be evidence of an emerging trend that Vance has a bad touch.
Pope Francis’s death report, released Monday afternoon by the Vatican, indicated he died of a cerebral stroke, which caused him to fall into a coma and suffer “irreversible cardiocirculatory collapse,” The New York Times reported. He had long suffered from chronic lung disease and developed double pneumonia earlier this year.
This story has been updated.