Thread by @gareth_gore

So, what are the ties between JD Vance and the Opus Dei network that has penetrated Washington, DC over the past few years?

A THREAD 🧵

Vance is close to Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation and the architect of Project 2025.

He wrote the foreword to Roberts' book Dawn’s Early Light: Burning Down Washington to Save America which was due out in September but then withdrawn.

newrepublic.com/article/184393…

Roberts gets his spiritual direction from the Opus Dei hub in DC and last year praised its controversial founder in a speech.

“Saint Josemaría tells us…Make yourself felt…Set aflame all the ways of the earth with the fire of Christ,” he said.

theguardian.com/us-news/articl…

This is a guy who was seen as “very loyal” by Franco, a brutal dictator who murdered thousands of opponents in peacetime.

The guy who created an abusive organisation that has been formally accused by federal prosecutors of trafficking teenage girls.

apnews.com/article/argent…

He saw his followers as “a rising militia...willing to go into battle against the enemies of Christ”.

Roberts has been weaned on this stuff. He has talked of a revolution “which will remain bloodless - if the left allows it to be”.

mediamatters.org/project-2025/h…

Vance embraced this idea in his (now withdrawn) foreword to Roberts’ book.

“We are now all realizing that it’s time to circle the wagons and load the muskets,” he wrote, echoing Roberts’ own words.

newrepublic.com/article/184393…

Vance has previously framed his own conversion to Catholicism in militaristic terms.

He wrote an essay about his conversion in 2020 called “How I Joined The Resistance”.

thelampmagazine.com/blog/how-i-joi…

Vance has long been a major supporter of Kevin Roberts’s efforts to transform the Heritage Foundation from a bastion of Reagan-era conservatism into the de facto institutional home of Trumpism.
politico.com/news/magazine/…

There are other Opus Dei connections.

Vance was a keynote at the Napa Institute. It was founded and is run by Opus Dei co-operator Tim Busch. Opus Dei has sponsored its events.

“Probably 20% of the people there are Opus Dei,” Busch told me.

Vance is also close to Peter Thiel, the tech entrepreneur.

Thiel was close to Opus Dei priest Arne Panula. The two men bonded over their shared disdain for government.

This is from my book:

Vance inhabits “a small, energetic world of conservative Catholic intellectuals, lawyers and politicians” - NYT.

We know Opus Dei has been throwing resources into penetrating these fields – especially in DC, now its largest community in the US.

nymag.com/intelligencer/…

Vance has also been a member of the Teneo Network since 2018.

This is run by Leonard Leo, another Opus Dei affiliate who sits on the board of the Opus Dei hub in DC, and who is also funding Project 2025.

propublica.org/article/jd-van…

This might all seem coincidental, but it has long been the mission of Opus Dei to infiltrate government, the judiciary, education and the media with its members and sympathisers.

Has it succeeded?

Read more in my book.
simonandschuster.com/books/Opus/Gar…