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Related Explainer: What's With The Weird 'J.D. Vance Photoshop Edits' Online? The 'Babyface' Trend That's Distorted The Vice President's Face Explained


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About

J.D. Vance Edited Face Photoshops, also known as J.D. Vance Face Edits, J.D. Vance Photoshops and Rare Vances, refer to numerous photoshop edits of U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance. Meme creators initially gave VP Vance a "babyface," making his cheeks chubbier and giving him childlike exploitable signifiers.

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Edits also surfaced en masse after the 2024 Vice Presidential Debate and after Vance's official Vice Presidential portrait in early 2025, when he and President Donald Trump took office. Popular edits included a Bald J.D. Vance, a GigaChad J.D. Vance and an Age Filter J.D. Vance, among others. By February 2025, a plethora of J.D. Vance Face edits had been shared online, inspiring discourse about people forgetting what VP Vance actually looked like. The discussion occurred shortly after Vance was quoted saying, "Have you said, 'Thank you,' once?" during a White House meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The term "Rare Vances" to describe the edits stems from the Rare Pepes. Also, J.D. Vance reportedly saw the meme trend and believed that it was funny. He later tweeted one of the memes showing himself as actor Leonardo DiCaprio.

In June 2025, Norwegian tourist Mads Mikkelsen claimed that he was barred from entering the U.S. after being stopped by immigration officials at Newark Airport in New Jersey, taken to a holding cell, and having his phone searched. Agents allegedly found the Bald J.D. Vance meme on his device. Mikkelsen's claims sparked international news coverage.

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Origin

On October 2nd, 2024, Republican congressman Mike Collins of Georgia posted a doctored photograph of J.D. Vance on his X[1] account that gave Vance a chiseled jaw and sharper cheekbones. The post gained over 12.3 million views 3,200 likes in five months (shown below).



The original picture comes from J.D. Vance's government website[2] (shown below).



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Collins' edit led to jokes, discourse and more unflattering edits of J.D. Vance's portrait. On October 2nd, 2024, Twitter[3] user @abughazalehkat joked that a sitting congressman had "yassified" J.D. Vance, gaining over 180,000 likes in five months (shown below).



On October 2nd, user X[4] user @ DaveMcNamee3000 started a thread of edits that gave Vance perpetually rounder cheeks and smaller eyes. The first post in the thread gained over 211,000 likes in five months (shown below).



Also on October 2nd, 2024, X[5] user @the_petshopboy posted an edit that gave Vance wider eyes and made him sweatier and tanner. The post gained over 2,400 likes in the same timeframe (shown below).



Edits of Vance's face continued in the following weeks. For instance, on October 17th, X[6] user @mrgapingasshole tweeted a "babyface" edit of Vance using a screencap from the 2024 Vice Presidential Debate. The user used FaceApp. Over five months, the image received over 139,000 likes (shown below).



Edits continued in 2025. For instance, on January 16th, 2025, X[7] user @awshuqs quote tweeted J.D. Vance's official Vice Presidential portrait, attaching an edit of it that made his cheeks chubbier, his head bald and his nose wider, gaining over 222,000 likes in two months (shown below).



On March 3rd, X[8] user @SperglerAcolyte tweeted an edited J.D. Vance photo in which he had long curly hair and a chubbier face, captioned, "I have completely forgotten what the real JD Vance looks like at this point." The tweet gained over 267,000 likes in two days (shown below).



Also on March 3rd, 2025, X[9] user @TheRoyalSerf tweeted a compilation image of multiple J.D. Vance Face Edits, captioning it wth the "I'm Putting Together a Team" catchphrase, amassing over 59,000 likes in two days (shown below).



On March 4th, X[10] user @uncledoomer tweeted, "Twitter is fucking unusable. I'm trying to get updates on whether World War 3 is on but all I'm seeing are fat JD Vance memes," gaining over 286,000 likes in a day.

Later on March 4th, 2025, X[11] user @SaintWhiteBled replied to @uncledoomer, speech bubbling the post with multiple J.D. Vance Edits saying in unison, "We agree." The reply gained over 16,000 likes in a day (shown below).



The abovementioned interaction was screenshotted and reposted on other social media sites like Instagram[12] in the following days.

J.D. Vance's Reaction

On March 5th, 2025, The Blaze writer Julio Rosas tweeted[13] that he spoke with VP Vance about the edited face memes, writing, "I can confirm VP Vance has seen many of the memes/edits of his pictures and thinks it's a funny trend." The post received over 50,000 likes in two days (shown below).



Viral reactions to the tweet ensued soon after, like on March 7th, X[14] user @loganclarkhall quote tweeted the post with an Alex Jones' Clones video that used a baby Vance instead of Jones, captioning it, "Never let anyone tell you Twitter isn't real life," receiving over 2,700 likes in two days (shown below).



"Pointing Rick Dalton" Tweet

On March 8th, 2025, J.D. Vance tweeted[15] one of the photoshop edits, showing himself as actor Leonardo DiCaprio in the Pointing Rick Dalton meme from the film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, receiving over 139.1 million views and 541,000 likes in two days (shown below).



VP Vance was mocked for his choice of meme in viral posts. For instance, on March 8th, X[16] user @esjesjesj tweeted, "Fixed it for you!" attaching a version of the Pointing Rick Dalton meme in which Vance's cheeks were chubbier, gaining over 448,000 likes in two days (shown below).



J.D. Vance Halloween Costume

On Halloween day, October 31st, 2025, Vice President J.D. Vance posted an image of his costume to his official Twitter / X[17] account (@JDVance) depicting himself with a wig, a suit and a wide-eyed expression, similar to the various face edits and Photoshop memes, particularly the one in which he's seen with longer curly hair.

The tweet received over 51.4 million views, 563,000 likes, 56,000 retweets and 27,000 replies in three days.



Bald J.D. Vance

Bald J.D. Vance refers to an edited image of U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance in which he has a bald head and rounder cheeks and is staring straight into the camera in front of a blue background. The Bald J.D. Vance meme was created in October 2024, using an image from the 2024 U.S. vice presidential debate in which Vance faced off against Democratic candidate Tim Walz. In June 2025, a 21-year-old Norwegian citizen named Mads Mikkelsen claimed that he was barred from entering the U.S. after he was stopped by immigration officials at Newark Airport in New Jersey and during his questioning, the agents allegedly discovered the Bald J.D. Vance meme on his phone. The story and Mikkelsen's claims brought new attention to the Bald J.D. Vance meme on social media.



Various Examples



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