Uploaded July 2026 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
Politics requires compromise. It does not require selling your soul.
Politics requires compromise. It does not require selling your soul.
Failure is not always measured by lost elections. Sometimes the greatest failure is moral. A man can achieve everything he ever wanted and, in doing so, lose the very self that once made him worth listening to.
That is the tragedy of JD Vance.
When Hillbilly Elegy appeared, I thought I was reading a young man capable of honest self-reflection.
I was wrong.
The vice president who now spends hours with Joe Rogan discussing UFOs, alien conspiracies, Jeffrey Epstein, bananas, corn dogs, and whether Joe Biden looks sexually suggestive eating an ice cream cone bears no resemblance to the writer who first appeared on the national stage.
The transformation from thoughtful observer to political opportunist is overwhelming. In chasing the approval of the manosphere and pandering for its illiterate votes, Vance abandoned moral seriousness. The search for truth gave way to the pursuit of celebrity in service of power.
Watching Vance these days is painful.
He was the intelligent Yale Law graduate who once understood exactly who Donald Trump was, but now he is the politician who submits himself to defending whatever Trump said five minutes ago, even when it contradicts what Trump blabbered five minutes before that.
Not able to leave well enough alone, Vance has written a book describing his conversion to Catholicism. Yet what we have witnessed is not a conversion toward spirituality and vivid humility, but toward godless power.
That is why I find Vance’s public embrace of any form of Christianity so profoundly unconvincing.
Christianity begins with confession, not self-justification.
Jesus warned repeatedly about the dangers of wealth, status, vengeance, and political power. The first shall be last. Blessed are the meek. Love your enemies. Welcome the stranger.
None of those teachings sit comfortably beside the politics Vance now embodies.
When an ICE agent shot a mother of three in the face, JD Vance’s response was not one of grief, caution, or even curiosity. Before the facts were even known, he defended the agent by insisting that those carrying out Trump’s immigration agenda deserve total immunity.
That single statement revealed far more about Vance than any speech about faith, family, or Christian civilization ever could, let alone a book about his conversion.
If you tell armed, barely trained thugs that they will not be held accountable, you should not be surprised when accountability disappears.
And now, very recently, another killing has stripped away the last bandage of sanctimony covering Vance’s sins.
In Maine, a 25-year-old Colombian immigrant was shot and killed during an ICE operation. Federal officials have said that the officer allegedly moved toward him and felt threatened. The identity of the shooter has not been officially confirmed by the Department of Homeland Security, although the officer has been publicly identified by family members and others who say they recognize him. His former wife told The New York Times that he admitted to her that he was the one who fired the fatal shots and insisted the shooting was justified.
The details that followed, reported by The New York Times, are chilling.
His former wife recounted years of abuse, saying he had choked her, hit her, thrown her to the floor, threatened to kill her, and begged her not to reveal what he had done to her over the years.
In fact, she had told friends, “If you find me dead, you’ll know who killed me.”
That is who ICE hired.
That is the kind of person Trump and Vance defend.
Court records show that another former wife also sought protection from this same ICE agent after alleging violent and threatening behavior. Friends from his youth describe a man with a long history of aggression.
His former wife said plainly that someone with those problems should, quoting her, “never have been entrusted with the extraordinary authority granted to police by civilians.”
And this is who and what JD Vance and Donald Trump are part of, when, in Vance’s case, he is not writing a book about converting to the Catholic Church.
This story is just one of hundreds that illustrate the moral collapse of the Trump-Vance project.
They wrap themselves in the language of Christianity while constructing a government in which armed agents with dubious, violent backgrounds are encouraged to believe they answer only to political power that has given them absolute immunity.
In fact, after the shooting, the current head of ICE said there would be no more traffic stops and car chases. Then, 24 hours later, this was rescinded by Trump, who had gotten pressure from white nationalists and racist groups to continue with the thuggery.
This is why JD Vance has disqualified himself from higher office.
frankschaeffer.substack.com/p/jd-vance-unforgivable-moral-failure?utm_source=youtube
Politics requires compromise. It does not require selling your soul.
Politics requires compromise. It does not require selling your soul.
Failure is not always measured by lost elections. Sometimes the greatest failure is moral. A man can achieve everything he ever wanted and, in doing so, lose the very self that once made him worth listening to.
That is the tragedy of JD Vance.
When Hillbilly Elegy appeared, I thought I was reading a young man capable of honest self-reflection.
I was wrong.
The vice president who now spends hours with Joe Rogan discussing UFOs, alien conspiracies, Jeffrey Epstein, bananas, corn dogs, and whether Joe Biden looks sexually suggestive eating an ice cream cone bears no resemblance to the writer who first appeared on the national stage.
The transformation from thoughtful observer to political opportunist is overwhelming. In chasing the approval of the manosphere and pandering for its illiterate votes, Vance abandoned moral seriousness. The search for truth gave way to the pursuit of celebrity in service of power.
Watching Vance these days is painful.
He was the intelligent Yale Law graduate who once understood exactly who Donald Trump was, but now he is the politician who submits himself to defending whatever Trump said five minutes ago, even when it contradicts what Trump blabbered five minutes before that.
Not able to leave well enough alone, Vance has written a book describing his conversion to Catholicism. Yet what we have witnessed is not a conversion toward spirituality and vivid humility, but toward godless power.
That is why I find Vance’s public embrace of any form of Christianity so profoundly unconvincing.
Christianity begins with confession, not self-justification.
Jesus warned repeatedly about the dangers of wealth, status, vengeance, and political power. The first shall be last. Blessed are the meek. Love your enemies. Welcome the stranger.
None of those teachings sit comfortably beside the politics Vance now embodies.
When an ICE agent shot a mother of three in the face, JD Vance’s response was not one of grief, caution, or even curiosity. Before the facts were even known, he defended the agent by insisting that those carrying out Trump’s immigration agenda deserve total immunity.
That single statement revealed far more about Vance than any speech about faith, family, or Christian civilization ever could, let alone a book about his conversion.
If you tell armed, barely trained thugs that they will not be held accountable, you should not be surprised when accountability disappears.
And now, very recently, another killing has stripped away the last bandage of sanctimony covering Vance’s sins.
In Maine, a 25-year-old Colombian immigrant was shot and killed during an ICE operation. Federal officials have said that the officer allegedly moved toward him and felt threatened. The identity of the shooter has not been officially confirmed by the Department of Homeland Security, although the officer has been publicly identified by family members and others who say they recognize him. His former wife told The New York Times that he admitted to her that he was the one who fired the fatal shots and insisted the shooting was justified.
The details that followed, reported by The New York Times, are chilling.
His former wife recounted years of abuse, saying he had choked her, hit her, thrown her to the floor, threatened to kill her, and begged her not to reveal what he had done to her over the years.
In fact, she had told friends, “If you find me dead, you’ll know who killed me.”
That is who ICE hired.
That is the kind of person Trump and Vance defend.
Court records show that another former wife also sought protection from this same ICE agent after alleging violent and threatening behavior. Friends from his youth describe a man with a long history of aggression.
His former wife said plainly that someone with those problems should, quoting her, “never have been entrusted with the extraordinary authority granted to police by civilians.”
And this is who and what JD Vance and Donald Trump are part of, when, in Vance’s case, he is not writing a book about converting to the Catholic Church.
This story is just one of hundreds that illustrate the moral collapse of the Trump-Vance project.
They wrap themselves in the language of Christianity while constructing a government in which armed agents with dubious, violent backgrounds are encouraged to believe they answer only to political power that has given them absolute immunity.
In fact, after the shooting, the current head of ICE said there would be no more traffic stops and car chases. Then, 24 hours later, this was rescinded by Trump, who had gotten pressure from white nationalists and racist groups to continue with the thuggery.
This is why JD Vance has disqualified himself from higher office.
frankschaeffer.substack.com/p/jd-vance-unforgivable-moral-failure?utm_source=youtube
