If Vice President-elect JD Vance wants people to stop calling him weird, he might want to stop doing stuff like this.
On Thanksgiving, the Republican posted an edited image of Norman Rockwell’s 1943 Thanksgiving painting “Freedom From Want” on social media.
The painting depicts a man and a woman at the head of a table where a family is seated for their holiday meal. The woman, wearing a frilly apron, is serving a turkey as the patriarch watches over her.
In Vance’s version, the 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 missive, writing, “Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Despite our challenges, we remain the greatest nation in the world, and I’m very grateful for it — and for all of you!”
It was certainly more festive than the president-elect’s own post, which, in accordance with his tradition, mostly focussed on attacking “Radical Left Lunatics.”
Social media users were truly baffled by Vance’s choice.
“I’ve seen a lot of embarrassing behavior on this app, but I have never seen anything quite like this,” wrote film executive Franklin Leonard.
Former Kamala Harris adviser Mike Nellis offered his own interpretation, speculating Vance was being obsequious to win back influence over Trump, who has been palling around with billionaire Elon Musk since the election.
“My head cannon for this is Vance is worried about Elon having more influence than him, so he thought posting this weird ass meme would win him favor again. Which… honestly might work because Trump is vain as hell and loves this stuff,” Nellis wrote on Bluesky.
Vance’s post evidently caught Musk’s eye; the SpaceX CEO reacted with a laughing emoji.
Check out the reactions on X (formerly Twitter) and Bluesky below.
Democracy In The Balance
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