In early April 2026, a claim spread online that Pope Leo XIV said he was "not afraid" to excommunicate U.S. Vice President JD Vance from the Catholic Church.
For example, on April 8, X account The Halfway Post wrote (archived), "BREAKING: The Pope is reportedly 'not afraid' to excommunicate JD Vance from the Catholic Church." The post had amassed more than 899,000 views, as of this writing.
(X.com)
The story spread as perceived tensions between the U.S. and the Vatican amped up. For example, another rumor circulated online in early April that Pentagon officials threatened a Vatican representative in a closed-door meeting in January 2026. This followed speculation that comments Leo made in April were directed at the United States and President Donald Trump. Then, on April 12, Trump posted critical comments about Leo on Truth Social (archived), calling the pontiff, "Weak on Crime, Weak on Nuclear Weapons," and "terrible for Foreign Policy." Leo responded, saying he has "no fear" of the Trump administration and does not want to get into a debate with the president.
The rumor that the pope threatened to excommunicate Vance also appeared on X, with some users seemingly interpreting the story as true. Snopes readers also contacted us for an answer.
In short, the claim originated from The Halfway Post, a website and social media network that posts satirical content. Its X bio reads: "Dadaist graffiti news. Halfway true comedy and satire for your doomscrolling by @DashMacIntyre. I don't report the facts, I improve them."
To further verify the rumor's origin, we searched on Yahoo, Bing and DuckDuckGo for evidence the pope produced the comment in question. If there were any actual evidence that Leo said he was "not afraid" to excommunicate Vance, journalists with reputable news outlets, such as The Associated Press or Reuters, likely would have reported on it. Instead, we encountered fact-checks and other misleading social media posts spreading the rumor.
The Halfway Post is a well-known satire site that we've repeatedly covered, as noted on the network's Medium "About" page:
The Halfway Post's comedy is award-winning, and has earned the most esteemed rating in the satire industry of "Pants On Fire!" by PolitiFact. THP has also been corrected by The Associated Press, USA Today, Newsweek, and is a regular subject of Snopes.
The Halfway Post contains other fictitious stories based on real events or people, including one claiming that Iran offered to open the critical Straight of Hormuz if the United States released all the Epstein files and another that U.S. soldiers were sarcastically yelling "for Epstein" during salutes.