If Vice President-elect J.D. Vance wants people to stop calling him weird, he might want to stop doing things like this.
On Thanksgiving, Republicans posted an edited image of Norman Rockwell’s 1943 Thanksgiving painting “Freedom From Want” on social media.
The painting depicts a man and woman at the head of a table where the family is sitting for a holiday meal. A woman in a frilly apron is serving turkey as the chieftain watches her.
In Vance’s version, the man at the head of the table is Donald Trump, the woman is Vance, and the turkey is an electoral map of a Republican-dominated state.
Earlier that day, Vance said, “Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Despite our challenges, we remain the greatest nation in the world. I am very grateful for that and to all of you.”
It was certainly more festive than the president-elect’s own post, which, in keeping with his tradition, mostly focused on attacking “radical left-wing lunatics.”
Social media users were truly baffled by Vance’s choice.
“I’ve seen a lot of embarrassing behavior on this app, but I’ve never seen anything like this,” film executive Franklin Leonard wrote.
Former Kamala Harris adviser Mike Nellis offered his own interpretation, speculating that Vance was flattering to regain influence over Trump, who has been hanging out with billionaire Elon Musk since the election.
“My brain cannon is that Vance is worried about Elon having more influence than him, so he thought posting this weird meme would win him back into favor. Frankly, it would work because Trump is really vain and likes this stuff,” Nellis wrote in Bluesky.
Vance’s post clearly caught Musk’s eye. The SpaceX CEO responded with a laughing emoji.
Check out the reactions from X (formerly Twitter) and Bluesky below:
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