Vice President JD Vance received the sacramental ashes this past Wednesday in observance of his Catholic beliefs, to which most of the reception was glowingly positive. Many practicing Christians in America have felt for far too long that their religion has been either watered down or altogether attacked by nefarious actors, so for the sitting Vice President to proudly receive and display his ashes, along with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, it is clear the Trump administration is filled by a new group of unapologetic leaders.
But not everyone was thrilled. People suffering from derangement syndrome or those who still trust corporate media, for example, used the opportunity to call him a poser and fake Catholic. One account with the X handle of NoBiscotti, which naturally had a Ukraine flag in its bio, decided to either mistakenly mix up Vance’s televised appearances or intentionally disseminate false information. This unfortunate user wrote that “[s]o called catholic JD Vance had no ash on his head to commemorate Ash Wednesday.”
That statement is clearly not true, as you can see in the video below that JD Vance received the sacramental ashes on a Texas tarmac before boarding a plane for a return trip to Washington, D.C. Watch that moment below:
The clip to which the X user NoBiscotti was referring came from a speech that Vance gave at the Southern Border, where he had flown down with Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Vance celebrated the Trump administration’s accomplishments and blasted former president Joe Biden for not making a secure border one of the most important priorities of his presidency.
Of course, the timeline of a Vance’s speech in which he doesn’t have the ashes and the clip in which he receives them is not hard to figure out. JD Vance toured the border, gave a speech, and later boarded a plane to return to Washington, D.C. Vance received the ashes in a brief ceremony on the tarmac as he departed Texas. So the comment in question simply doesn’t pass muster; of course Vance didn’t have ashes on his forehead during the speech. He hadn’t received them yet!
Vance made very powerful remarks during his tour of the border and subsequent speech. “The reason why we’ve seen,” the Vice President began, “a 98% reduction of border crossings. The reason why this particular site has gone from over 1500 crossings per day to 30 crossings per day is because President Trump has empowered and, in fact, demanded that his whole government take the task of border control seriously. And that’s exactly what we’re doing. And of course, and this leads to my final point before we take questions, it is impossible to do without the men and women on the ground who are actually doing the hard work they just want to be empowered to do their jobs. President Trump has made that possible. So from the bottom my heart and for a grateful nation, to every person I’ve met here today, thank you for working hard on the American people’s business. It’s been an honor to be with you. It’s been an honor to see what you do, and we’re going to keep on supporting you over the next four years.”
Watch Vance tout his and Donald Trump’s early border successes in the speech without his ashes.
Featured image: Screen shot from embedded video.