Copyright New York Post
Happy Hallow-meme. Vice President JD Vance completely leaned into internet culture for the spooky holiday — and transformed into just one of many meme-ified versions of himself that have been shared online for years. The Republican, 41, donned a dense curly brown wig, which he paired with a red tie and blue blazer in a clear imitation of the bloated, dunce version of himself popularly used by internet trolls. “Happy Halloween. And remember to say thank you!” Vance said in an Instagram video that ended with him eerily spinning in a circle as the “Twilight Zone” theme plays. The veep also shared an up-close and personal selfie in costume to X, making sure to widen his eyes to appear like the photoshopped version of himself in the meme. “MAKE SURE YOU SAY THANK YOU,” the White House wrote, sharing the image on its own account. The “thank you” comments reference the chaotic and controversial February Oval Office meeting Vance and President Trump held with the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, in which Vance chastized Zelensky for not being grateful enough for US assistance in its war with Russia. “Right now, you guys are going around and forcing conscripts to the front lines because you have manpower problems; you should be thanking the president for trying to bring an end to this conflict,” Vance charged. The comment spread like wildfire across the internet and led to a surge in Vance memes that had already been floating around since his vice presidential debate against Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz in October. All of the images were photoshopped to make Vance appear stupid, caveman-like or childlike — until the game reached new heights and his face was plopped onto celebrities’ bodies. Vance leaned into the chaos from the get-go and has already shared iterations of the pictures on his own social media channels, including a heavily edited one posted earlier Friday that read: “Can you hear the screaming.” “The fact that people started making memes of JD Vance like this and he basically just shrugged his shoulders and said, ‘Screw it! Let’s roll with it,’ is one of the funniest things to happen in politics over the last decade,” one man wrote on X. “Amazing. Great reminder that in politics, and in life, joining in on the joke is almost always the winning move,” said Gates McGavick of the Republican National Committee. Vance, however, did open the floodgates to plenty of internet trolls replying to his X post with even more memes. The veep did not immediately respond to a request for comment about his meta costume.
