John F. Kennedy’s grandson Jack Schlossberg found an unlikely ally to troll JD Vance over the death of Pope Francis—the ultra-conservative Ann Coulter.
Pope Francis died aged 88 on Monday morning—after he spent a few minutes of his Easter Sunday with Vance at the Vatican.
“Okay JD killed the pope,” Schlossberg posted on Instagram. The 32-year-old is the newest and most online face of the country’s most prominent Catholic family. In contrast the vice president is a self-described “baby Catholic” who become a member of the church when he converted in 2019.
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“I know you have not been feeling great, but it’s good to see you in better health,” Vance told the pope during the meeting on the holiest day in the Catholic calendar. Hours later, he was dead.
This spawned a flood of tributes, and a mass of tongue-in-cheek memes suggesting that Vance killed him.
Far-right commentator Ann Coulter, who has long been critical of the progressive pontiff, wrote: “Good work, JD.”
The Trump MAGA acolyte publicly raged against Francis when he urged acceptance towards the gay community within the Catholic church. Coulter somehow made the move about Trump in an April 2016 tweet.
“Drudge: ‘Pope urges acceptance of gays, divorced...’ But NO acceptance of Trump!” she wrote.
Francis and thrice-married Trump have had a rocky past, with the holy man even once doubting whether the businessman is truly Catholic. Aides eventually talked Trump down from publicly sparring with the pontiff.
Coulter, echoing the critique of some more conservative Catholics, saw the pope as too progressive. Sharing this view, Fox & Friends host Brian Kilmeade wasted no time in throwing potshots at the recently deceased pope Monday morning.
He somehow made Francis’ death about Joe Biden. The pope “seemed to have a lot of reverence for Joe Biden‚” Kilmeade said, in criticizing the former president’s stance on abortion.
He also slammed the Catholic Church for shutting the doors during the worst period of COVID. The pope, Kilmeade added, “pledged allegiance to the church of Anthony Fauci, sadly.”
Francis looked decidedly glum when he eventually met Trump and his family in the Vatican in May 2017.
And despite being Trump’s henchman, Vance was still desperate to meet the pope. However, the aftermath of his audience with Francis is perhaps not what he expected.
After his death, many accounts—some followed by hundreds of thousands of people—targeted the VP with wild, albeit comical, accusations. Dozens of mocked up pictures showing Vance as the Grim Reaper, scythe and all, circulated online.
“What did you do bro,” streamer and political commentator Dean Withers replied to Vance’s X post paying tribute to the head of the Roman Catholic Church. His comment was viewed almost half a million times.
Alongside eyeball emojis, podcaster Ryan Shead straight up said: “JD Vance killed the Pope.”
Model and social media personality Emily Sears took a similar stance, joking: “So JD Vance celebrated Easter by killing the Pope? Got it.”
Another account, followed by 80,000 people, added: “You’re going to find it very hard to convince me that JD Vance did not kill the pope.”
Software engineer Alex Cole, who is followed by Jack Schlossberg, added: “Things to keep away from JD Vance: Couches, Trophies, Popes.”
It comes after Vance dropped Ohio State’s gold College Football Playoff (CFP) National Championship trophy last week. The “couch” reference relates to a joke that the vice president once had sex with a sofa.
Cole had earlier said: “MAGAs don’t like Pope Francis because he told Christians they should be nice to others.”
Comedy account ‘Simplified US History’ said Vance’s “aura” killed the head of the Catholic Church. Satirical website News Thump added: “NEWS! Pope loses will to live after meeting JD Vance.”
Others likened the situation to the death of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II in 2022, just two days after meeting the country’s controversial conservative Prime Minister Liz Truss.
Vance, meanwhile, admitted that he thought the pope looked ill when they met on Easter Sunday.
“I was happy to see him yesterday, though he was obviously very ill,” he said in his condolence message on X Monday morning.
And despite the pleasantries between the two (the pope offered three large Easter eggs for Vance’s children), the pontiff used his second last day on Earth to rebuke the White House’s attitude to migrants.
After the meeting, Francis’ official Easter speech later that day appeared to make a subtle nod to Trump and Vance’s policies.
“How much contempt is stirred up at times towards the vulnerable, the marginalized and migrants,” Francis wrote in the address, read by an aide due to his ailing health.
