David Axelrod — Obama’s old campaign whisperer, the guy who helped sell “hope and change” like it was a used car with a fresh coat of paint — apparently can’t retire. He’s back. And this time, he’s not just working the political angles. He’s working the spiritual ones.
According to Breitbart Editor-in-Chief Alex Marlow, Axelrod met with the Pope just days before the Vatican started lobbing rhetorical grenades at Donald Trump. Coincidence? Sure. And I’m the starting quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys.
Marlow laid it out on his show:
“I’m trying to track what was going on with this campaign to take down Trump with the Catholics…and it seems to come from David Axelrod, who was Obama’s campaign guru…he met with the Pope, just I think it was last week. And a few days later, all of a sudden, you’re seeing the Pope come out.”
Let that marinate. A Democratic operative — one of the most ruthless political strategists of the last twenty years — takes a little stroll through the Vatican, and suddenly the Catholic Church starts sounding like an MSNBC panel. If you can’t see the strings on this puppet show, you’re not paying attention.
The Playbook Nobody’s Supposed to See
This is classic Axelrod. The man doesn’t throw punches himself. He finds someone with moral authority, whispers in their ear, and lets them do the swinging. He did it with Obama. He did it with every media surrogate who carried water for the Democratic Party for a decade. And now he’s apparently doing it with the Pope.
Think about the brilliance of the scheme — and I use “brilliance” the way you’d describe a con artist’s technique. You can’t attack the Pope. You can’t call him a political hack without looking like you’re attacking the faith of sixty million American Catholics. It’s a human shield made of white robes and incense.
That’s the whole point. Weaponize an institution people trust so that any pushback looks like bigotry. It’s the same trick they’ve pulled with every cultural institution they’ve hijacked — universities, Hollywood, late-night TV, and now, apparently, St. Peter’s Basilica.
Trump Isn’t Fooled
Here’s what Axelrod and his friends keep forgetting: Trump doesn’t play by their rules. He never has. When the establishment sends proxies, Trump names. When they hide behind institutions, he walks right through the front door. That’s what terrifies them.
They tried the media. Didn’t work. They tried impeachment — twice. Didn’t stick. They tried the courts. He came back stronger. So now they’re trying the church. Because when you’ve exhausted every earthly weapon, you go celestial.
But American Catholics aren’t stupid. Pew after pew, parish after parish, they watched this Pope drift further from doctrine and closer to Democratic talking points for years. A suspiciously timed political intervention right after an Obama operative visits Rome isn’t going to fool the people who actually show up on Sundays.
The Real Question
What does it tell you about the state of the opposition that they need to recruit the Vatican to fight their battles? They don’t have a candidate. They don’t have a message. They don’t have a movement. All they have is a seventy-something political operative from Chicago making house calls in Rome, hoping borrowed moral authority will accomplish what ballot boxes couldn’t.
Axelrod built his career turning ordinary politicians into messiahs. Now he’s trying to turn an actual religious leader into a political weapon. The audacity would be impressive if it weren’t so transparently desperate.
Here’s my prediction: this backfires spectacularly. Catholics who were on the fence will see through the timing. Independents will smell the manipulation. And Trump will do what Trump always does — take the hit, call it out loud, and watch his numbers climb while the architects of the scheme scramble to explain why their masterstroke landed like a wet firecracker on the Fourth of July.
David Axelrod thought he found the one authority Trump couldn’t challenge. He bet wrong. Again.