For JD Vance, apparently, his wife, Usha Vance’s religion needs an upgrade for him to stay politically relevant. While speaking at a Turning Point event, he accidentally exposed how faith has become a tool for his political ambitions in MAGA land.
On Oct. 29, 2025, Vance addressed a Turning Point event as a tribute to his late friend, Charlie Kirk. But while answering a question about his interfaith family dynamic, he accidentally exposed his bigotry. While admitting that his wife was raised in a Hindu household, he expressed a wish for her to find her way to his faith.
“Do I hope eventually that she is somehow moved in by church. Yeah, I honestly, I do wish that because I believe in the Christian gospel. And I hope eventually my wife comes to see it the same way. If she does not, then god says everybody has free will and so that does not cause a problem for me.”
And to justify his wishes, he twisted facts about his own wife. Vance claimed that Usha was raised in a Hindu but “not a particularly religious family.” He asserted that both of them considered themselves agnostic or atheist when they first met. But Vance’s version of their past conflicts with Usha’s own statements.
The contradiction became even more glaring when photos and public records showed they had a Hindu ceremony alongside Christian elements at their wedding in 2014. Usha is the daughter of immigrant parents from Andhra Pradesh, and has repeatedly described her upbringing as religious. She practices Hinduism, including following Hindu epics like the Ramayana and Mahabharata, and respecting traditional rituals.
She has even said that those traditions shaped her moral values and made her parents “good people”:
While Vance is a devout Catholic now, he was the only agnostic one when the two married. In fact, Usha was the one who encouraged him to start reading his own scriptures and embrace his religion. The couple is now raising their three children in the Christian faith, but Usha has denied any plans to convert. Yet, her mighty Catholic husband openly admitted he hopes Usha will “eventually be moved by the church” and embrace Christianity.
But there is clearly a deeper political calculus at work here. In a MAGA base that often confuses faith with patriotism and Christian identity with American identity, calling your wife agnostic and hoping for her conversion is a signal. The white nationalists and orthodox Christians would never accept Usha with her own faith. And because MAGA despises anyone outside their bubble, he’s now trying to rewrite her identity.
The backlash on social media to his insensitive wishes was immediate. Indian-American voices and Hindu advocacy groups called his remarks “Hindu-phobic.” It’s no small matter when an elected Vice President of a secular country suggests that his wife’s faith is something to be “corrected.” But his motives are pretty clear to everyone.
One user on X strikingly pointed out the hypocrisy and insecurity in Vance’s statement. “A man who changed his name three times, his religion twice, and changed every political stance he had in eight years is in disbelief someone stays consistent in their beliefs,” they said. Another quipped, “I’ll bet he slept with the couch that night,” taking an aim at Vance’s infamous “sleeping on the couch” remark. But sure enough, if Vance is publicly making such remarks about his wife’s faith, he deserves to sleep only with the couch.
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