Peter Thiel slams Obama, Pope Leo in new ‘Antichrist’ lectures

The tech billionaire accused them of using AI concerns to “boost their own popularity,” according to recordings obtained by POLITICO.

 

Peter Thiel made the remarks in his latest "Antichrist" lecture series in Nashville, according to recordings obtained by POLITICO. | Tobias Schwarz/AFP via Getty Images

By Calder McHugh

10/08/2026 1:48 PM EDT


Tech billionaire Peter Thiel is escalating his attacks on critics of artificial intelligence, accusing former President Barack Obama and the pope of exploiting the public’s fears about AI, according to exclusive recordings of closed-door lectures obtained by Decoded by POLITICO.

In a new series of talks in Nashville, Thiel singled out the two leaders as he sharpened his warnings about the Antichrist — a figure who he sees as stopping the progress of technology and advocating for a “one world government” of regulation.

“Many people know that AI is politically unpopular and want to leverage that to boost their own popularity,” Thiel said. “Both Obama and the pope fall into this category. Obama knows the Democrats have no ideas,

 but they can at least oppose AI.”

The former president recently urged Democrats to come up with a more comprehensive plan on AI.

Thiel was even more critical of Pope Leo XIV, suggesting his focus on AI was an attempt to divert attention from the Catholic Church’s sexual abuse scandals.

“He needed something politically popular to distract from the church’s child sex abuse scandals, and he found it in AI,” Thiel said, referring to the pope’s first encyclical on AI.

Peter Thiel's Antichrist Obsession Explained

 

Why is JD Vance talking about the Antichrist?

In a podcast episode, the vice president implied that the ‘End Times’ might be near



JD Vance kneels to pray during the inauguration of Pope Leo XIV Photo by Getty Images

By Mira FoxSeptember 4, 2026


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JD Vance said he might be bringing about the End Times, adding that he would not be “shocked if the Antichrist was walking among us.”

Vance was speaking on the Christian YouTube show The Bryce Crawford Podcast about his memoir, Communion, which covers his conversion to Catholicism from Protestantism.

Numerous Catholics online reacted to his statements with confusion and frustration, saying that the ideas about the apocalypse Vance voiced are not central parts of Catholicism. While Catholicism does discuss the idea of the Second Coming, a time in which Christians believe Jesus will return to Earth, the Catholic Church Catechism — the Vatican’s official statements and teachings about the fundamentals of the religion — says that “we are already at ‘the last hour’” ever since Jesus died; the Antichrist is mentioned only briefly as a “a pseudo-messianism by which man glorifies himself in place of God,” not as a specific person who will come to the world.

The Antichrist and Armageddon, however, take center stage in many Evangelical churches, where these concepts often drive other extremist ideas, such as labeling politicians the Antichrist — at one point during the Obama administration, a poll found that one in four Americans thought the president might be the Antichrist — as well as Christian Zionism, an attempt to get all Jews to return to Jerusalem to hasten the apocalypse, when many believe Jews will be sent to Hell.

As one snarky Catholic commenter put it, Vance’s apocalypse-heavy discussion of his Catholicism sounded like “three evangelicals in a trench coat.”

It also sounded a lot like Peter Thiel, the billionaire Palantir founder and Vance’s mentor, donor and former employer. Thiel has a famed obsession with the Antichrist; earlier this year, several Catholic institutions distanced themselves from a series of lectures Thiel gave in Rome on the topic. Vance cited Thiel as an influence on his conversion in an essay about why he chose Catholicism, despite the fact that Thiel is not Catholic.

JD Vance: Antichrist may be walking among us

Vice-president tells evangelical YouTuber he ‘wouldn’t be shocked’ if world was living through ‘end times’

JD Vance, the US vice-president, says he is ‘focused on trying to do God’s work’ Credit: Getty Images / Saul Loeb

Verity Bowman

Show biography

Published 03 September 2026 12:34pm BST


JD Vance has claimed that the antichrist may be “walking among us”, and said the world may be living through the “end times”.

The US vice-president made the comments during a podcast interview with Bryce Crawford, 22, an evangelical Christian with more than a million YouTube followers.

While promoting his new book Communion: Finding My Way Back to Faith, Mr Vance said he was “trying to focus on doing as much of God’s work as possible”.

He said: “Do I think that we’re in the end times? I don’t know. I think that it’s probably bad for me spiritually to focus too much on it. There are things about the world that make me feel not shocked if the antichrist was walking among us.

“I tend to think that while I wouldn’t be shocked if we are living in the end times, what I’m trying to focus on is doing as much of God’s work as possible right now, and that if that leads to the end times, OK.”

The vice-president was speaking to evangelical Christian and YouTube star Bryce Crawford, 22 Credit: YouTube


Literal readings of the “end times” hold that an antichrist will rise to power, turn against God and persecute believers before Jesus returns.

Asked another question on the “end times”, Mr Vance described a friend whose wife had turned to an AI chatbot for counselling, only to realise it agreed with everything she wrote.

Tech billionaire Peter Thiel takes on popes, delves into end-times theology

Peter Thiel speaks with attendees at the 2022 Converge Tech Summit in Scottsdale, Ariz. (Wikimedia Commons/Gage Skidmore)

by Brian Fraga

Staff Reporter

July 15, 2026

In the last two weeks, the billionaire venture tech capitalist Peter Thiel has accused Pope Leo XIV of being a Chinese communist agent and insinuated in the pages of a prominent interreligious journal that Pope Francis was an Antichrist figure.

Thiel, a co-founder of Palantir and PayPal who has risen to prominence as a conservative political activist, has articulated an apocalyptic worldview that he says is consistent with traditional Christian theology but that his critics say is more aligned with Cold War-era geopolitics.

His interest in end times theology was even lampooned in the recently completed 28th season of "South Park," where Thiel was portrayed as a biblical prophecy expert, equipped with his own theme song, who speaks on the end of days to an elementary school assembly.

Thiel's stated concerns that the Antichrist will be manifested by a one-world government or by Luddites who aim to stop or slow technological progress was a subtext in several provocative comments he made at the Aspen Ideas Festival in Colorado on June 30.

As reported by CNN, Thiel delivered a series of dire warnings and predictions about the future of artificial intelligence and the West, even accusing Pope Leo XIV of inadvertently serving as a "Chinese communist agent" because of the pontiff's calls for AI to be regulated.

According to Thiel's logic, while Leo's recent encyclical on artificial intelligence, Magnifica Humanitas, may influence American policymakers, it is unlikely that Chinese leaders will heed the document's warnings.

Thiel argued that the encyclical threatens to slow down only one side of the "race between the U.S. and China" to advance AI. Leo, Thiel surmised, is thus "working for the Chinese Communists." CNN reported that the Aspen audience responded with laughter.

While it garnered chuckles, Thiel's comments about Leo revealed a Cold War mentality taken to a new intense level, said Massimo Faggioli, a theologian and church historian at Villanova University in Pennsylvania.

A Biblical Response to Fear-Based End Times Hysteria

Bible Megaphone

Aug 14, 2026  

Is the Papacy the Antichrist? What does the Bible actually say about the Pope, Daniel 7, Revelation 13, the little horn, and end-time prophecy?

In this Bible study, we examine Scripture and history to explore the prophetic characteristics of Daniel’s “little horn,” the beast of Revelation 13, the rise of the papacy, and the historic Protestant interpretation of these prophecies. We also look at Bible prophecy, deception, worship, the mark of the beast, and the Three Angels’ Messages of Revelation 14.

Most importantly, this study points beyond fear and speculation to Jesus Christ, the true center of Bible prophecy. Open your Bible, examine the evidence, and decide what Scripture teaches.

Ian Paisley denounces Pope John Paul II as antichrist in 1988

 

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The United States in Prophecy

The King and the Pope

We learn that in the last few days our King, Charles III, and his wife, paid a ‘surprise visit’ to see the Pope of Rome. This comes hard on the heels of the various favourable comments he has made regarding Islam – comments which have drawn a lot of criticism – particularly as they come from the man who promised to uphold the Protestant Reformed faith at his coronation. That is, therefore, an appointed task to make that particular effort. And so, for exactly the same reason as we criticized his favourable comments about Islam, we therefore criticize this visit to the Pope of Rome.

Now, as far as Rome is concerned, such a welcome is no surprise. After all, Karol Wojtyla, when Pope, held a ‘joint prayer session’ at Assisi with various Muslim leaders in 1986, joining with them in ‘prayer’. And recently the current Pope is reported by the Catholic News Agency to have had a brief, ‘unscheduled meeting’ with the imam of Perugia, Abdel Qader Mohammed. Even Ratzinger, when Pope, did not condemn the meeting. So it is clear that Rome is perfectly happy to hold hands with Islam, despite He whom they claim to worship not even being the same God as the false god of Islam.[1]

It is also clear that for all their ‘fiery words’ about various subjects, Rome has no intention of holding any of its high profile adherents to account for the positions they hold, especially so on morality – for example LifeSite News reports, “Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, a vocal proponent of abortion and euthanasia, was caught on camera receiving Holy Communion — just moments after a visiting priest condemned those very sins in a powerful homily.”[2]

Free Presbyterian Minister says Pope Francis ‘was most certainly an antichrist’

Story by Allan Preston 

A Free Presbyterian minister in Co Down has said that he makes no apology for stating that Pope Francis “was most certainly an antichrist”.

Rev Daniel Henderson of Moneyslane Presbyterian Church made the comments during a sermon the day following the pontiff’s funeral in Rome.

Advertising the sermon online - ‘Was Francis an antichrist?’ - the livestreamed service also took aim at other Protestant churches and King Charles for their “wishy-washy” statements of sympathy following the 88-year-old’s death last month.

Rev Henderson, who is originally from Liverpool, told the congregation he was not against Catholics and that his own mother was a previous member of the church, but that he believed successive popes had led “millions” to hell.

His main objection was the “blasphemous” belief of Catholics that the Pope is God’s representative on earth.

“I make no apology in saying that Francis was most certainly an antichrist,” Rev Henderson said during this service.

“Francis was when he was in this office, and no doubt the next individual that will be elected to that office of Pope, claims to be the spiritual father of every man, woman, boy, girl upon the face of the earth whether they like it or not.”

He continued: “The Roman antichrist has truly deceived many, countless millions over the centuries have been sent to a lost eternity in hell for evermore due to the influence of Rome upon their lives.

“The Roman Catholic is not to be hated, they are to be pitied and loved…there is apparently 1.4bn Roman Catholics in this world and they all are in need of the Lord Jesus Christ.”

After the Pope’s Passing, This Shocking Reality Came to Light

King Charles and Queen Camilla visit Pope Francis Antichrist

Why True Christians Reject the Pope and Roman Catholic Doctrine (Ian Pai...

The Sharper Sword

Sep 19, 2015

Ian Paisley in an awesome sermon warning against the Pope and the coming kingdom of Antichrist from the very frontlines of the onslaught of the ecumenical movement which he and his congregation stood against in Ulster, successfully. Paisley teaches us by his life's example what spiritual warfare will be like for true Christians all over the world in these final days of this Age. This sermon touches on many verses to support the idea of purity in both doctrine and deed, including Biblical support for the permissibility of protesting and resisting all heresy, ungodliness, and cultural wickedness; but this sermon is most prominently rooted in the prophecies, of 2 Thessalonians Chapter 2, which tell of the coming Antichrist. And for nearly 1600 years now, the most Antichristian force in the Western world has been the Roman Catholic Church. Although there are many in that church and elsewhere who (falsely or not) call themselves Christians, you ought to know by now that the devil prefers to camouflage himself as a friend rather than to appear overtly and honestly in a form that shows who he truly is in his heart: a liar, a thief, and a murderer from the beginning. Follow along in the real Bible here: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/.... 

This sermon and more than 1000 more from Dr. Ian Paisley are available on sermonaudio.com for free here: http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo...

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