Mike Pence was raised Catholic, but he transformed into an evangelical after being converted at a Christian music festival in Kentucky.  Erik Prince, the founder of the Blackwater mercenary army, was raised in the Dutch Reformed Church before converting to Catholicism. But this sectarian divide didn’t stop these two from a marriage consummated in war profiteering and Christian crusading.

Pence received thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from Prince, including money given to Pence’s PAC called “Principles Exalt a Nation.” In December 2007, three months after Blackwater operatives gunned down 17 Iraqi civilians in Baghdad’s Nisour Square, Pence and his Republican Study Committee, which served “the purpose of advancing a conservative social and economic agenda in the House of Representatives,” organized a gathering to welcome Prince to Washington. 

The idea of a Trump presidency is certainly a frightening prospect, but given that he has said that Pence will be in charge of both domestic and foreign policy, while Trump focuses on making America great again, this could presage a triumphant return to the fatherland for Prince and his mercenary cronies.