If newly elected Vice President JD Vance wants people to stop calling him weird, he might want to stop doing this kind of thing.
On Thanksgiving, the Republican posted an edited image of Norman Rockwell Thanksgiving painting from 1943 “Freedom from want” on social media.
The painting shows a man and a woman at the head of a table where a family is sitting for their holiday meal. The woman, wearing a ruffled apron, serves a turkey while the patriarch watches over her.
In Vance’s versionthe man at the head of the table is Donald Trump, the woman is Vance, and the turkey is a Republican-dominated electoral map of the country.
Earlier in the day, Vance had posted a more typical holiday message, to write“Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Despite our challenges, we remain the greatest nation in the world, and I am deeply grateful for it – and for all of you!”
It was certainly more celebratory than the president-elect’s own post, which, in keeping with his tradition, focused mainly on attacking “radical left-wing lunatics.”
Social media users were truly stunned by Vance’s choice.
“I’ve seen a lot of embarrassing behavior on this app, but I’ve never seen anything like this,” wrote film director Franklin Leonard.
Former Kamala Harris adviser Mike Nellis offered his own interpretation, speculating that Vance was subservient to regain influence over Trump, who has been hang out with billionaire Elon Musk since the election.
“My headcanon for this is that Vance is worried about Elon having more influence than him, so he thought posting this weird meme would get him back in favor. Which… honestly could work, because Trump is vain as hell and loves this kind of thing,” Nellis wrote on Bluesky.
Vance’s post apparently caught Musk’s attention; the SpaceX CEO responded with a laughing emoji.
Check out the reactions to X (formerly Twitter) and Bluesky below.
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