While governor of Indiana, Vice-President Mike Pence was known for keeping an open Bible on his desk. At the White House, he was the most senior member of the U.S. cabinet’s first scripture study group in at least 100 years. Yet, after declaring Joe Biden as the winner of the 2020 election,  the man widely considered to be President Donald Trump’s most pious and devoted disciple is now being cast as the ultimate betrayer of the MAGA cause.

On January 6, with a single vote, Pence found himself at the center of a whirlwind of conspiracy theories that has only grown in intensity since that day’s breach of the Capitol by an armed mob of Trump supporters. Many of the narratives circulating online have cast him as the New Testament’s most infamous figure.

“He is Judas now,” said Alexander Reid Ross, a doctoral fellow at the Center for Analysis of the Radical Right. 

Ross has been monitoring far-right disinformation on 4chan and other online channels following the unprecedented scenes in Washington, D.C. He pointed to a 4chan post about Pence that read, “Before the Last Supper, Judas went to the chief priests and agreed to hand over Jesus in exchange for 30 silver coins.”