The attempted hit piece on one of J.D. Vance’s closest allies in the administration fell apart in a day. Let’s take a step back to understand the context. For years, Elbridge Colby — currently the Undersecretary of War for Policy at the Pentagon, a prominent and respected realist thinker on national security — has been the target of attacks from those seeking to undermine his status within the policy community. These attacks have come primarily from neoconservatives seeking to undermine someone who has the resume of a future secretary of state or the like. Now, as with so many other disputes, Colby has come to serve as a proxy for the true target of criticism: Vice President J.D. Vance, who purportedly shares many of his foreign policy views. The latest assault originated in the The Free Press, which published a freelance writer who made audacious, unsourced claims about conversations that occurred within a January meeting with representatives of the Catholic Church. Concerning a meeting between Pentagon officials and the Apostolic Nuncio Christophe Cardinal Pierre — preceding any critique by the Pope of the current conflict in Iran — The Free Press published claims that read like they were designed by AI to offend Catholics everywhere. Describing the confab as “a bitter lecture warning that the United States has the military power to do whatever it wants—and that the Church had better take its side,” it included the hair-on-fire claim that in the meeting, Pentagon officials — presumably including Colby — “went so far as to invoke the Avignon Papacy, the period in the 1300s when the French Crown leveraged its military power to dominate the papal authority.” The claim was echoed by the ideologically incoherent band of Trump administration critics, in this case including The Atlantic’s David French, Pod Save America’s Jon Favreau, and noted resident of the furthest reaches of the galaxy Candace Owens. Bro podcaster Shawn Ryan suggested that the Trump administration was literally threatening to bomb the Vatican. The report led to this question on the tarmac in Hungary of Vance, who was clearly blindsided by the claims: The only problem with this report is that everyone in the room has said that’s not what happened. This comment in response from Brian Burch, Ambassador to the Holy See, related the views of Cardinal Christophe Pierre, who retired as the Apostolic Nuncio following his 80th birthday: I was pleased to speak today with His Eminence, Cardinal Christophe Pierre. As expected, he confirmed that recent media characterizations of his meeting with Undersecretary Colby are “fabrications” that were “just invented.” Given the intelligence and seriousness of Mr. Colby, I… https://t.co/R2ogLy2HAf — Ambassador Brian Burch (@BrianBurchUSA) April 9, 2026 “I was pleased to speak today with His Eminence, Cardinal Christophe Pierre. As expected, he confirmed that recent media characterizations of his meeting with Undersecretary Colby are ‘fabrication’ that were ‘just invented.’ Given the intelligence and seriousness of Mr. Colby, I was likewise not surprised when His Eminence acknowledged there were no threats of any kind in the meeting. ‘It was a frank and cordial meeting that took place two months ago.’ Threat of Avignon? ‘None.'” In fairness, the participants were smiling an awful lot for just getting threatened with Dresden on the Tiber. Under Secretary of War for Policy Elbridge Colby @USWPColby had a substantive, respectful, and professional meeting with Cardinal Pierre, the then-Papal Nuncio, and his team on January 22, 2026. During the cordial meeting, they discussed a range of topics, including issues of… pic.twitter.com/McI0sB2wKC — DOW Rapid Response (@DOWResponse) April 9, 2026 The Vatican release this morning is as definitive as it gets, reading in full: As confirmed by His Excellency Christophe Pierre, former Apostolic Nuncio to the United States, his meeting with Mr. Elbridge Andrew Colby was part of the Pontifical Representative’s regular duties and provided an opportunity for an exchange of views on matters of mutual interest. The account offered by certain media outlets regarding this meeting does not correspond to the truth in any way. There are denials, and then there are vociferous denials, and then there are unequivocal denials. The Free Press piece remains published, with only an editor’s note giving comment from the Pentagon. The question we should be asking is this: Why would anyone run such a thinly sourced piece attacking the prominently Catholic vice president unless there was an underlying agenda?