Vice President JD Vance continues to make headlines, from his recent ski trip to Vermont to his interjection in an Oval Office meeting between Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Amid all this attention — which culminated in protests against the vice president this week — a resurfaced image of Vance has continued to do the rounds on social media. The image first gained traction in August of last year, around the time when Vance was named as Trump’s pick for vice president.
The image appears to show Vance dressed in a drag queen outfit, complete with a blonde wig, necklace and a patterned skirt. So where exactly did the image originate, and why did it go so viral on social media in the first place?
Social media influencer Matt Bernstein first shared the image.
In Aug. 2024, Matt Bernstein — whose profile boasts 1.8 million followers — wrote on Instagram that he had “obtained” an image of Vance dressed in drag. The photo was reportedly taken in 2012 while Vance was attending Yale Law School, and while Bernstein did not initially reveal how he sourced the photo, more details were later provided by a distant acquaintance of Vance’s.
Travis Whitfill said on X that it was him who provided the image to Bernstein, and he later told The Daily Beast that the image was lifted “from a group chat of Vance’s fellow classmates and is from a friend of a friend.” Whitfill also said the image “was grabbed from Facebook and was taken at a Halloween party.” In the same The Daily Beast article, Whitfill said that he “didn’t know” Vance while attending Yale, but had heard during his time there that he “was actually a good guy in law school.” Whitfill later shared screenshots to confirm it was him who sent the image to Bernstein.
The photo took off on social media.
Here are the receipts pic.twitter.com/MIrqAChuma
— Travis Whitfill (@twhitfill) August 11, 2024
It wasn’t long before the image of Vance — who ran an on anti-LGBTQ platform and spent much of his time curtailing transgender rights — went viral on social media. Many users called out the hypocrisy of Vance dressing as a woman when he had perpetuated false and misleading rhetoric around drag queens and supposed grooming. “I’ll stop calling people ‘groomers’ when they stop freaking out about bills that prevent the sexualization of my children,” Vance wrote on X in 2022, in reference to some states’ efforts to ban drag performances in public. Despite the virality of the image, a spokesperson for Vance did not deny the photo’s authenticity, and refused to provide any comment.
I'll stop calling people "groomers" when they stop freaking out about bills that prevent the sexualization of my children.
— JD Vance (@JDVance) April 6, 2022
The image recalled a similar moment with George Santos.
— matt (@mattxiv) August 12, 2024
Joining the commentary around the image of Vance was George Santos, who was likewise the subject of internet fanfare when images of his own drag persona, Kitara Ravache, began circulating in 2023. “Holy crap, is that bad drag,” Santos told TMZ of the image of Vance. continued. “To call that drag is disingenuous and I think most dudes at some point in their lives have played around with costumes that are gender bender.”
Former Congressman George Santos revives drag queen persona Kitara Ravache for Cameo app. pic.twitter.com/MhNryfCmSU
— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) May 1, 2024
Santos and Vance aren’t the only notable political figures who have had images of themselves in drag resurface in recent times. Last year, the internet got wind of a skit from 2000 that showed Rudy Giuliani dressed in drag and receiving a motorboat from Donald Trump. With all that chatter of politicians in drag, it’s no wonder an AI-generated image of conservative Republicans dressed in drag went viral last year.
Published: Mar 7, 2025 06:24 am