Vance Says He Wouldn't Be Shocked if the Antichrist Is Walking Among Us

WASHINGTON —

Vice President JD Vance said he would not be "shocked" if the Antichrist is walking the Earth, and that he is comfortable with the idea that doing what he sees as God's work could hasten the end times, according to NBC News Politics.

Vance made the remarks Tuesday during an hour-long interview about his Catholic faith with Bryce Crawford, a 22-year-old evangelical Christian who hosts his own podcast, the Independent reported. Vance recently published a memoir, "Communion," about his 2019 conversion to Catholicism.

Asked whether the end times are coming, Vance said he tries not to dwell on the question. "I got to be good to my wife. I got to be good to my kids. I have to be, you know, as good of a leader as I can for the United States of America," he said, according to NBC News Politics. He added that "there are, like, things about the world that make me feel, like, not shocked if the Antichrist was walking among us," but said, "if that leads to the end times, okay."

AI and "Spiritual Dark Energy"

Vance, who like President Trump has pushed for more data centers to power AI development, told Crawford that some uses of the technology carry what he called "really, really weird spiritual dark energy," NBC News Politics reported. He described a friend whose spouse used AI for marriage counseling, saying it removed real human feedback. "It sort of short circuits that social part of our brain where we respond to other people's wants and needs, and just completely, like I think that's kind of satanic," Vance said.

Asked to rate his own odds of getting into heaven on a scale of one to 10, Vance said, "It's high, but it's not 10, right? Like it's it's a seven or it's an eight."

Trump's Assassination Attempt and the AI Jesus Post

Vance also pointed to the assassination attempt against Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, in 2024 as evidence of what he called "the hand of providence," saying that if Trump had turned his head a moment later, he would have viewed the outcome as part of "a broader conspiracy" involving "dark forces," according to NBC News Politics.

Crawford also asked Vance about an AI-generated image Trump posted earlier this year showing himself as Jesus, which Crawford said had offended him. Trump took the post down after criticism, including from some supporters, after first saying he thought it depicted him as a doctor. Vance defended the president, saying, "He did not mean to, like, mock or mimic God, that's just not who he is," and described Trump as someone who likes to "keep things light."

The Independent noted that before entering politics, Vance was mentored by tech billionaire Peter Thiel, who has said in lectures in Rome that he is "worried about the Antichrist," which he has described as "an evil king or tyrant or anti-Messiah who appears in the end times."