What Musk vs. Trump means for Catholics and for Vance

By Peter Wolfgang ( bio - articles - email ) | Jun 06, 2025

It’s happening sooner than I expected. Way sooner. I thought the 2028 Republican presidential primaries would be the time to work all this out. But this thing is going down right now.

I’m talking about the very public falling out between Elon Musk and Donald Trump. Oh, don’t get me wrong. I never expected that relationship to last four years. No one did. But I didn’t expect it to blow up this soon.

And the thing that’s happening sooner than I thought? The fight whose timetable just got moved up? It’s not Musk vs. Trump. It’s Musk vs. Vance.

Granted, Vance hasn’t spoken a word about the Musk/Trump split as I write this column. But you know it’s coming. So let’s get out ahead of it and have that conversation now. Because it has huge implications for the future of Catholic engagement in American politics.

First a brief history, courtesy of my own archives here at Catholic Culture. Recall my reaction to Vice President JD Vance’s speech at the March for Life:

The Vance speech was notable for combining the pro-life message with the Catholic-influenced language of the new populism. When have we ever heard a Republican Vice President denounce “radical individualism” before? Or argue for social programs to make it affordable for young families to have more babies?

Next, remember my reaction to USA Today’s hit job on “the emergent Catholic right”:

That is the point of Vice President Vance calling out “radical individualism” at the March for Life. And his situating the pro-life cause in a larger pro-family framework. And his telling Catholic critics of Trump’s immigration policies to Google Ordo Amoris. When Massimo Faggioli criticizes the emergent Catholic right for having a “more libertarian, more focused on individual freedom” focus, he is completely missing it. Vance is mixing traditional American social conservatism with an economics more rooted in Catholic social solidarity.

Finally, consider my reaction to Vance’s speech at the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast:

Call it Vanceism. Or the Vance Doctrine. A more specific subset of the populist nationalism that many have struggled to define since Trump first came down the escalator in 2015—and a more Catholic one. To the extent that Trumpism is a hodgepodge of often conflicting ideological tendencies—tech bro transhumanism mixed in with anti-woke libertarianism and Manosphere podcasters—Vanceism is the particular strain of Trumpism that Catholics should be rooting for.

That last line is key. Vanceism is the particular strain of Trumpism that Catholics should be rooting for.

I published those words on March 2nd. On May 9th, the Saturday Essay of the Wall Street Journal did a deep dive on that very subject:

Within that clash were strains of two radical and conflicting philosophies that have animated Trump’s first 100 days. On one side are tech bros racing to create a new future; on the other, a resurgent band of conservative Catholics who yearn for an imagined past. Both groups agree that the status quo has failed America and must be torn down to make way for a new “postliberal” world.

Now, this is the Wall Street Journal and not, say, First Things. So you have to read around the slightly pejorative description (“yearn for an imagined past”) of Vanceism. Nevertheless, the Journal’s essay accurately describes the stakes:

But the two camps disagree sharply on why liberalism should be junked and what should replace it. The techies envision a libertarian world in which great men like Musk can build a utopian future unfettered by government bureaucrats and regulation. Their dark prince is Curtis Yarvin, a blogger-philosopher who has called for American democracy to be replaced by a king who would run the nation like a tech CEO.

The conservative Catholics, in contrast, want to return America to a bygone era. They venerate local communities, small producers and those who work with their hands. This “common good” conservatism, as they call it, is bound together by tradition and religious morality. Unlike Musk, with his many baby mamas and his zeal to colonize Mars, they believe in limits and personal restraint.

Here comes the money quote in that May 9th essay. The thing that’s just been accelerated by the Musk-Trump falling out happening ahead of schedule:

Like others, [Catholic theologian David] Deane marvels at Trump’s ability to corral tech futurists and religious traditionalists into the same political movement—those thrilled by the prospect of transhumanism and those committed to protecting the dignity of the human person. “There’s few figures less Catholic than Musk!” he quipped, calling him a “neo-pagan.” But he also wonders how long it will last. “At some stage a civil war is coming to the Trump movement,” he predicted. “And I think Musk and Vance will be on two very different sides of that civil war.”

Bingo.

Now, to be fair, it may not be that simple. PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, for instance, is a point of overlap, a benefactor to both JD Vance and Curtis Yarvin (who is described by the Journal as Thiel’s “house political philosopher”). But:

Ultimately, it is the vice president himself who may determine the future of this unwieldy coalition. Both sides have reason to believe Vance is one of theirs: He is a common-good Catholic who went to work for Thiel’s venture-capital firm in 2017 and credits him as a friend and mentor.

Quo vadis, Mr. Vice President? Who knows? Perhaps Vance will be the one to heal the breach between Musk and Trump. He is perfectly situated for it. But that civil war between the different wings of Trumpism will have to come to a head at some point, either in the 2028 primaries or sooner. Perhaps right now.

We should not root for the destruction of the political coalition that has brought about much good for Catholics in the United States these past few months. But we should root for its Catholic wing to be ascendant over the wing that wants transhumanism, and dictators, and legions of baby mamas, rather than traditional families. That means being ready when that fight arrives. Are you? Is the Vice President?

Peter Wolfgang is president of Family Institute of Connecticut Action, a Hartford-based advocacy organization whose mission is to encourage and strengthen the family as the foundation of society. His work has appeared in The Hartford Courant, the Waterbury Republican-American, Crisis Magazine, Columbia Magazine, the National Catholic Register, CatholicVote, Catholic World Report, the Stream and Ethika Politika. He lives in Waterbury, Conn., with his wife and their seven children. The views expressed on Catholic Culture are solely his own. See full bio.

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