Vice President JD Vance is leaning heavily into his Catholic faith while promoting his new book, “Communion,” describing car accidents and falling glassware as divine messages and using a string of media appearances that observers say looks increasingly like a 2028 presidential audition. The vice president’s latest foray into supernatural territory came during an August 8, 2026, interview with Fox News host Kayleigh McEnany, 38, on “Saturday in America.”
A Near-Death Drive and a Message From God
McEnany prompted Vance, 42, to revisit one of the more dramatic passages in “Communion” — a close call behind the wheel following his grandmother’s funeral. The car began to spin on a wet road and came to a stop at the edge of a drop, moments from going over the mountainside. The vice president had no hesitation in labeling the incident something far beyond ordinary. “I kind of came around a corner — I guess it had been raining — and I was going a little bit too fast,” he said, recounting the harrowing moment in detail before declaring it “definitely” a supernatural experience.
Vance also told McEnany about a glass that fell from a wall while he discussed Christianity with a friend, which he described as a message from a higher power. The vice president also managed to work in a reference to the Quentin Tarantino film “Pulp Fiction” during the conversation, lending the interview an eclectic quality that quickly drew attention online.
Book Tour or Campaign Trail?
“Communion,” released in June 2026, chronicles Vance’s conversion to Catholicism in his 30s and has served as a springboard for a relentless series of television and radio appearances. While Vance has publicly brushed aside questions about a potential 2028 presidential run, the sheer volume of his media engagements has fueled persistent speculation about his ambitions. For months, President Donald Trump, 80, has kept both Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio in suspense by suggesting he would be content with either man as the Republican standard-bearer in 2028. However, an Oval Office conversation reported by The Washington Post indicated that Trump told donors, “At the end of the day, we need to elect JD” — a remark that lends Vance’s media blitz a notably purposeful quality. Prediction markets put Vance well ahead of Rubio for the 2028 nomination — roughly 44 percent to 23 percent as of August 11 — though those numbers move.
The faith-forward messaging has become a consistent thread running through Vance’s public persona, positioning him as a devout convert eager to speak openly about spirituality in ways that are rare for a sitting vice president. Critics have questioned whether the supernatural framing is a genuine expression of belief or a calculated effort to build a distinct brand ahead of a national campaign. Supporters, however, argue that Vance is simply sharing his personal journey in a way that resonates with a significant portion of the Republican base.
Fat Jokes, Jesus, and a Vatican Feud
The supernatural talking points were not the only eyebrow-raising moments from Vance’s recent media rounds. On Thursday, August 6, he called into conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt’s Salem News Channel program to address criticism over a fat joke he had made at the expense of Fox News contributor Marc Thiessen. Vance said it was just a joke and called Thiessen a good Catholic, invoking Jesus’s humility to contextualize his willingness to punch back with humor.
The vice president’s habit of citing scripture has not, however, extended to pushing back on Trump when the president has taken aim at religious figures. After Trump publicly attacked Chicago-born Pope Leo XIV — the current pontiff — over immigration policy, Vance sided with the White House while also criticizing the Vatican, telling Fox News that statements from Rome on immigration had been troubling. When Trump posted a since-deleted AI-generated image depicting himself as Jesus, Vance once again moved quickly to defuse any controversy, dismissing the image as simply a joke rather than treating it as a matter worthy of concern.
Vance’s Faith and the Road Ahead
The August 8 Fox News appearance, reported by journalist Wiktoria Gucia, captured a vice president who appears comfortable weaving personal faith narratives into his political identity — even when those narratives veer into territory that leaves audiences divided between admiration and bewilderment. Whether tales of miraculous car stops and mysteriously falling glassware ultimately help or hinder Vance’s appeal beyond the Republican primary electorate remains an open question. What is clear is that with “Communion” in hand and a crowded 2028 field already taking shape in the background, Vance shows no signs of dialing back either his religious messaging or his media presence anytime soon.
