The following is a satirical (i.e., not real) interview with Chris Jackson, author of the blog Hiraeth in Exile.
In it, Chris answers questions for Joe, the Catholic reporter who writes on behalf of the online publication, Traditional Catholic Tribune. Jackson, for those who don’t know, is a stalwart defender of the Donald Trump presidency, having founded his own Pro-Trump blog (Catholics 4 Trump).
He created content for it until just a few days before the unlawful ascension of Robert Prevost to the “papacy,” (May 8, 2025) after which time Jackson enjoyed a meteoric rise to Catholic journalistic superstardom. Now, Jackson splits time between opposing Prevost and criticizing whoever he considers “Trad Inc” among the Catholic commentariat. He still, however, defends Trump, causing somewhat of a rift between pro-Trump and anti-Trump Catholic traditionalists.
Enjoy the interview!
Joe: Thank you, Chris, for joining me at my office for a quick interview. I’ll try to keep this short since I know you’re a busy writer with daily essays. If you could, briefly remind everyone of the focus of your blogging endeavors at Hiraeth in Exile.
Chris Jackson: My primary mission is to expose modernism, particularly rampant in the Leo XIV pontificate, including his ongoing mission to solidify and extend the “Spirit of Vatican II.” Lately, I’ve also tried to convince naysayers of the necessity of voting for the lesser of two evils, despite the shortcomings of the Trump administration and the Republican Party. Otherwise, we face almost certain annihilation from the greater evil of the political left.
Joe: Okay, we certainly agree on that first matter (modernism and Vatican II), and we’ll of course discuss our differences regarding secular politics. First, however, I know that some of our readers may wonder how you became one of the most popular Catholic writers in such a short time, just over these past 18 months? Nobody seems to have much recollection of your intrepid writing prior to Leo and the rapid emergence of generative artificial intelligence.
CJ: Well, before AI, I was a tad slow. That was back when I wrote for The Remnant, and was less known. Now, I can (and MUST) produce daily content for Catholics who require their everyday fix of Church politics and news analysis.
Joe: Ah, so you’re like the 24-hour news cycle, perhaps? Now, regarding politics, you’ve taken the position that Catholics must vote for Donald Trump and the Republicans in the mid-term elections, the lesser of two evils, or risk mortal sin.
CJ: Yes, the popes assert this position as well. I just wrote an article citing an example as recent as Pope Pius XII, who insisted Catholics should align with a lesser-of-two-evils candidate to possess any hope of achieving the best outcome for the welfare of Catholics.
Joe: Those same popes tell us to avoid Freemasons and Jews, yet you seem to endorse Republican/MAGA politicians who are often one and/or the other. Would Pope Pius XII really want us voting for the lesser of two evils if both aspiring evils were Freemasons?
CJ: The popes also tell us to avoid the public company of heretics (Protestants). Has anyone followed that admonition lately? Today, practically everyone does business with heretics, considering how out-numbered Catholics are, with no chance to establish parallel societies or economies.
Joe: I suppose this shows us we cannot legalistically fixate on every specific prescription of the popes. Perhaps we must evaluate the context and circumstances of our times. For instance, if Pope Pius XII was still with us, would he have supplemented his previous writings with a further warning against obvious villains, those who carry around the wicked Jewish Zohar, suppress their citizens with unprecedented martial law, or threaten to annihilate other nation-states (multiple times)?
CJ: Most of those implications regarding Trump are totally hearsay or impossible to verify.
Joe: Maybe you could say that with just one or two of them if they were isolated examples, but where there’s smoke, there’s fire, and Trump’s administration is a massive conflagration. Don’t you also find it strange, by the way, that whenever these supposedly fake Truth Social rants reach the surface and embarrass him, he doesn’t even bother to disavow them? Isn’t that the easiest thing to do, to at least deny having made such barbaric social-media rants as the one about “a whole civilization will die tonight?”
CJ: They’re fake! Why should he dignify them with a response?
Joe: Are we really to believe that all evidence condemning the political right is fake, whereas all their policy platforms are genuine? Isn’t this naïve?
CJ: It’s not because there really is a simple dichotomy of a greater evil (the left) versus a somewhat weak, but generally good, coalition of folks on the right. The former is dishonest and produces everything fake, whereas the right, although imperfect, offers solutions more in line with Catholic political and social teachings.
Joe: Okay, maybe that’s a decent segue into our next topic because there seems to be tremendous potential for fakery and chicanery through all this AI business, a resource you’ve championed quite a lot. I can see how it makes composition more expedient, but do you have any concerns about using something created and aggressively pushed by our enemies (sodomites, leftists, technocrats, radical de-populationists, trans-humanists, etc.)?
CJ: No, that’s the same flimsy objection people had for condemning the Internet. You wouldn’t give that up over those concerns. Would you?
Joe: No, but AI looks like an incredible Tower of Babel project, powered by these wasteful monstrosities, known as “data centers.” As if we didn’t have enough trouble with water/electricity shortages nowadays, these enormous data boxes consume scarce resources mercilessly. Then, there are concerns with how all this tech trash leads to a potential beast system complete with insertable chips, Neuralinks, the mRNA poison, dubious wearable tech, and who knows what else.
CJ: That sounds like conspiracy nonsense.
Joe: Is it, or are we dabbling with something tainted with the diabolic? This wouldn’t be the first time Catholics, and society at-large, got tricked into playing with demon-infused toys. Remember Ouija boards?
CJ: I think you and I have a far different outlook on where things are heading in the world even if we both espouse Catholic tradition. What utility has any of us gotten from donning tin-foil hats and anchoring ourselves into a troglodyte existence?
Joe: I don’t know, man. The conspiracy theorists appear to be batting close to a thousand in recent years. The CoronaScam truly changed the game. This AI and other Big Tech filth doesn’t seem worth the risk. Your call, though.
Joe: So all this discussion about fakery just reminded me of some other fake nonsense in the news: fake body parts to be specific. What do you make of all this recent fixation with human posteriors, from President Trump? Should Catholics vote for a man who ogles over his generals’ lower physiques and offers lewd compliments to surgically enhanced rapper women? I imagine you believe the popes would have wanted us to go along with this man as the lesser of two evils given Trump’s gluteal pronouncements.
CJ: Uh, well, I guess that’s . . . You know, you have to overlook some of Trump’s personality quirks and . . . uh . . .
Joe: C’mon. Think faster. If you don’t, then your beloved Trump will remain the butt of this joke forever. You might even have to change the name of your old blog to “Catholics 4 Rump” at the rate he’s going.
CJ: I’m trying to respond, but CatholicGPT is going too slow. I have to check my sources on these things, you know?
**As Jackson searches for an answer from the notes on his phone, Joe notices the image of Frank Walker appearing there instead, either as an incoming call or text message.**
Joe: I guess that’s just the way things go, Chris.
Joe: Also, Chris, if there’s so much of a difference between Trump and his “opponents,” those evildoers we ought to avoid, why should we trust him, or his allies, after discovering he donated money to the “greater evils” several times (see: here, here, here and here)? It’s no wonder so many observers have said this whole American political scheme resembles a pro-wrestling promotion, where all the supposed enemies are really best friends behind the scenes.
CJ: Trump’s a changed man! You write for this “Traditional Catholic Tribune.” Don’t you believe in redemption? Nobody has any reason to think that Trump would still support leftists or donate to perverted gay Republicans any longer.
Joe: Okay, bud. If you insist. Maybe he just switched to appointing them to his cabinet posts.
Joe: I noticed you were a bit dismayed with Michigan Republicans, specifically Catholic Vote, who reneged their endorsement of the neocon candidate for U.S. Senate. You seemed to suggest it was no better than handing the seat to a massive pro-abort Muslim. Are we to believe, however, that the Republican establishment is reliably pro-life?
CJ: Again, they aren’t perfect, but the alternative spells an almost guaranteed revival of nonstop abortion, one jurisdiction after another. Those Michigan conservatives are sinfully negligent for abandoning a viable politician like that.
Joe: Well, there you go. This gives us more ample evidence that conservatives, the people and their politicians, are radically inconsistent with everything. This should lead us to conclude, yet again, that politics is a go-nowhere strategy, only much worse because it almost always yields the opposite results that any good man would intend.
CJ: No, this is where we see that the people dropped the ball, refusing to give ANY halfway-decent politician a chance.
Joe: On the contrary, it looks like politics, at any level, cannot work, especially with something wretched, like democracy, as long as people’s hearts are entrenched in sloth, ambivalent to life, and dominated by their inferior passions. You can’t achieve anything with a miserable population, one deserving of a purifying chastisement as its only remaining remedy. By the way, where should we say we get all these politicians, if not from the ranks of sinful people themselves? As Mike Cernovich explained, red states, except Nebraska, vote to have abortion every time it’s up to them to decide. Can’t we finally acknowledge that there is NO authentic pro-life movement in the U.S. because everyone, MAGA members included, is inclined toward the pro-death viewpoints?
CJ: Shouldn’t some of us at least TRY to fix this? Don’t we also live in the real world where we have to work with flawed people and politicians?
Joe: Yes, we should do something, and it would appear, given the misery of our current plight, that we will accomplish nothing until we are humbled and beseech God’s mercy, particularly through the Immaculate Heart of Mary and Her Holy Rosary. In the meantime, all conventional civic engagement will be useless at best, and will worsen the death culture with near certainty.
Joe: I have some other questions, though, if we’ve exhausted the abortion subject. What would you say are the differences between political conservatism and what many of us call Traditional Catholicism? Are they reconcilable?
CJ: There are differences, especially since most American conservatives are Protestants or Novus Ordo Catholics. However, at this stage of the game, we cannot afford to disregard every opportunity to build a coalition to oppose the much greater evil emanating from the political left.
Joe: It sounds like you’re playing a dangerous game of political ecumenism if you insist on forging alliances with non-Catholics just to win with so-called conservative politics. I could see this leading to a bunch of p . . .
**Just then, and without warning, someone else abruptly enters Joe the Catholic Reporter’s office and slams the door loudly behind him. Joe looks to see who it is, only to be accosted by the renowned Catholic news aggregator, Frank Walker, of Canon212.com.**
Frank Walker: What in the name of Pope Leo IV is going on here?!
Joe: Come again? How did you get in here? We’re doing a private interview.
FW: Well, I walked inside this Leo door after your Leo receptionist permitted me entry. I heard you were badgering my friend and fellow anti-Leo musketeer, Mr. Jackson, and that YOU are a NeverTrumper.
Joe: I don’t think tough questions are tantamount to badgering, Mr. Walker. Why do you keep saying “Leo” so much?
FW: It’s because I can’t say “Francis” as often anymore, what with him being dead and all. Look, I didn’t sign up for some miserable Leo interrogation from some Leo inquisitor. I came here to rescue my non-Leo broskie from this ruthless antagonism.
Joe: That makes almost no sense, Frank, and you just barged in here like a Leo in a China shop … … Damn, now you have me doing it.
FW: It’s addictive, isn’t it?
Joe: Let’s hope not. Anyway, how do you define “NeverTrumper,” since you accused me of that?
FW: NeverTrumpers are those who oppose the actions, messages, decisions, platform, agenda, or personality of Donald Trump, either in thought, word, or deed. By doing so, the NeverTrumper signals to everyone the unequivocal message: “I want to hand the world over to Kamala Harris, AOC, and the Leo Left.” Then, by extension, this puts you in league with ALL the like-minded Swishops in the LeoChurch. Are you swishy and swampy, Joe? Are ya?
Joe: That’s a bizarre definition and a rather spurious extension. Plus, isn’t it possible for someone to despise the Judeo-masonic intentions of both the left AND the right?
FW: That’s crazy. You’re totally cuckoo for Leo Puffs.
Joe: Does that apply to everyone who suspects Trump is a Judaized deep-state puppet? You know, I was researching your website, and I noticed one person who is critical of Trump, yet you NEVER lampoon her as a NeverTrumper. Who is that? That would be Ann Barnhardt, who has excoriated Trump’s charade for a long time. So, Frank, would you post one of her anti-Trump comments on your site and label her a NeverTrumper?
FW: Ahhh!! No way! She’d shoot me! She’s scary! Don’t make her mad, or she’ll get you. Just the thought of it gives me the Leo-jeebies.
Joe: Fair enough, Frank. I guess there are exceptions to your NeverTrumper crusade then. Speaking of which, let’s say someone USED TO BE a Trump supporter before becoming disillusioned by Project Warp Speed, the Iran War, and Trump grabbing the chair for Netanyahu like a sycophantic, groveling manservant. How do they count as “never” Trumpers? Couldn’t you call them “former” Trumpers? Maybe that’s too fine of a point, but your presumptive analysis lacks precision and leaves no room for nuance.
FW: Nah, that’s a bunch of Leo talk, son. As soon as you disrespect the president once, you’re cut off from his graces until you repent. It’s like being politically anathematized and marked with the NeverTrumper stench of death. People should point and shout at you, “Unclean! Unclean!” Honestly, you sound like Nick Fuentes with all that talk about “Judeo-masonry.” What? Are you scared of ze Jooz?
Joe: Are you a Forever Trumper?
FW: Are you scared of ze Jooz?
Joe: I wouldn’t say “scared.” I’m not alone in my suspicion of Jewish conspiracies either. I have it on several reliable sources (see here, here, and here, for instance) that it’s a rather old problem. Then, it was none other than St. Maximilian Kolbe who accused the Jews of being the driving force behind Freemasonry.
**Chris Jackson returns to the discussion.**
CJ: There you go again. That’s not proof of anything. I can’t even find a source for that claim when I search for it on Google. It’s complete conjecture and speculation.
Joe: Because you’re using something most of us dismiss as Jewgle. That’s why there isn’t a source for you, and whenever someone submits a good one, you reject or explain it away as garbage. Furthermore, do you ever use sources that don’t offer an AI explanation, generated by crummy algorithm-manipulated search engines? It’s no wonder you don’t understand the obvious Trump Deception or Jewish Deception. How is this any better than the normies who are clueless after getting all their information from Fox News, CNN, or MS-LSD?
CJ: I don’t know. GPT is telling me I need to GTH out of here. Toodles.
FW: Yeah, I’ve had enough of this journalistic blitzkrieg as well. What a Leo-krieg! It’s time to go home and eat some Leosagna.
**Following that splendid discussion, Joe exhausts his patience with both Jackson and Walker, asks them to leave, exits his office, and speaks to his receptionist. She informs him that there’s a Peter Kwasniewski waiting to see him for an interview on the topic of the evils of hyper-mega-undiluted-unabashed-ultramontanism. There’s also a Taylor Marshall who wishes to discuss his new book on Priestly Polygamy: Confessions of a Married Former Anglican Priest.**
Joe: *sigh* Oh well, at least a Trad Inc interview will make infinitely more sense than squabbling with those other guys. Either way, I think Catholic media is going to drive me to drinking.
