Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) is being subjected to scrutiny on social media for his… beard.
“Vance grew his beard because he literally looks like a very large baby without it,” quipped one person on X.
The swipes about Vance’s facial hair come in the wake of a Bulwark report Tuesday alleged the senator’s facial hair might dissuade former President Donald Trump from offering him the coveted running mate spot.
“J.D. has a beard. But Trump is a clean-shaven guy. He just doesn’t like facial hair,” a Trump confidant told the Bulwark.
Whether Vance will be Trump’s running mate is still up in the air—though the online prediction market PredictIt currently puts him with the highest odds—but Trump put to rest rumors he’d reject Vance because of his beard.
Trump told Fox News on Wednesday that he’d “never heard that one” about the facial hair report and countered “he looks good…he looks like a young Abraham Lincoln.”
Though Trump appeared to put the issue to rest, the discourse around Vance’s hair has nonetheless proliferated online. And everyone seems to be in agreement with Trump: the beard suits him.
“And look at him WITHOUT the beard. Burqas and beards are good for some people,” snipped conservative pundit Ann Coulter.
“So, that’s why JD Vance grew a beard,” snarked another person alongside a photo of a clean-shaven Vance.
“Also a good reminder that JD Vance without a beard looks like the spoiled prep school kid in every early 2000s film who unironically says ‘wait until my father hears about this,’” joked someone else.
Concluded another person: “If Vance is picked for VP, I hope he keeps the beard. Let’s be honest, he looks like a 12 year old without it.”
Criticism of Vance looking young without a beard are slightly unfair, given that he’s much younger in videos of him without.
But the Vance beard discourse, however, is no new conversation.
His beard was a popular topic during his Senate campaign against Democrat Tim Ryan in 2022, with Ryan at the time digging that “unlike JD Vance, I will never … grow a terrible beard.”
And it’s perennially popped up online, with users’ unceasing cracks about his facial hair.
“JD Vance is what would happen if Boss Baby grew a beard,” quipped one person in 2021.
“Just shave JD Vance’s beard and he’ll lose all support,” commented a self-described center-right Republican account in April. “He literally looks like a reddit user.”
Trump is expected to announce his vice presidential pick in the coming days ahead of the Republican National Convention, which begins July 15.
“It could happen any time this week. Could happen literally right up until the first day of the convention,” senior adviser Jason Miller told Fox & Friends on Monday.
Vance, however, told NBC News on Sunday that he has “not gotten the call” from Trump and would let the press know if that happens.
“Most importantly, we’re just trying to work to elect Donald Trump,” Vance said. “Whoever his vice president is, he’s got a lot of good people he could choose from.”
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