Vance Dresses as His Own Meme for Halloween

Vice President JD Vance leaned into an internet joke at his own expense this Halloween, posting a short video of himself wearing a curly brown wig to mimic a meme that’s followed him for months.

In the TikTok clip, filmed at the Naval Observatory residence, Vance opens the door in a dark suit and red tie, smiling as he tells trick-or-treaters, "Happy Halloween, kids ... remember, say thank you!" The line is a playful callback to the "you didn’t say thank you" meme before he spins under purple lights to the eerie "Twilight Zone" theme.

The 41-year-old vice president’s video racked up more than 250,000 likes and 14 million views within hours, an extraordinary number for a political post, and drew thousands of comments across Instagram, X and Facebook.

Vance first became the butt of the "fat JD with curly hair" meme after a tense White House exchange with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in February. Critics edited a photo of Vance with exaggerated features and wild hair, pairing it with captions like, "you didn’t say please" or "you didn’t say thank you."

Rather than ignore the ridicule, Vance embraced it. Earlier this week, the White House X account joined the online fun, posting mock "costume package" images of political figures, including a "JD Vance Costume" that jokingly "does not include the fat JD curly hair." Vance’s own Halloween post essentially completed the gag by adding that missing piece himself.

Within hours, the vice president’s post was trending. Screenshots flooded social media, with one user calling him "the best VP ever" and another saying, "JD just won 2028." Elon Musk responded simply with a laughing emoji.

Even some critics gave credit. One commenter on X said, "he did the meme lol." Users quickly remixed the Halloween look with the original meme, adding jump cuts and effects as it spread across platforms.

For a White House that thrives on viral content, Vance’s light-hearted stunt fits seamlessly into the Trump administration’s digital playbook. The comms shop for President Trump has long embraced meme culture and rapid-fire online humor, sometimes even powered by AI.

By Friday night, Vance’s Halloween post was still climbing past 14 million views.

For now, JD Vance has done what few politicians manage by turning a meme into a personal win and proving that, at least on Halloween, even the vice president can laugh along with the internet (in a wig).