J.D. Vance "Have You Said Thank You Once?"

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Part of a series on February 2025 Volodymyr Zelenskyy Donald Trump White House Meeting. [View Related Entries]

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J.D. Vance "Have You Said Thank You Once?" refers to a question asked by U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during his and President Donald Trump's meeting with Zelenskyy in late February 2025 when he asked Zelenskyy, "Have you said, 'Thank you,' once this entire meeting?" concerning the U.S.

military aid given to Ukraine since the 2022 Russian invasion. The question was criticized by Vance's opponents and championed by his supporters, mirroring support of Trump and his insistence on favoring Russia and Russian President Vladimir Putin over Ukraine. Critics believed that Vance's questioning was dangerous and offensive to President Zelenskyy and the Ukrainian people. Many meme creators on Twitter / X and TikTok, among other social media sites, mocked Vance in viral posts that equated his "Have you said, 'Thank you,' once?" quote to immature baby talk, predominantly using the J.D. Vance Babyface Edits as image macros, while some supporters championed the moment.

Origin

On February 28th, 2025, U.S. President Donald Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House to sign a minerals deal allowing the U.S. greater access to the country's rare earth minerals. The meeting ended with no deal being signed.^[1]

At one point, VP Vance asked Zelenskyy, "Have you said, 'Thank you,' once this entire meeting?" The moment was clipped by X^[2] user @Acyn on February 28th, gaining over 21.5 million views and 133,000 likes in three days (shown below, Vance says the quote at the 0:55-second mark).

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On February 28th, 2025, the official X^[3] account of the White House (@WhiteHouse) tweeted a photo of VP Vance at the meeting with his quote, "Have you said thank you once?" as the caption, receiving over 59.1 million views and 157,000 likes in three days (shown below).

Later on February 28th, X^[4] user @CNLiberalism quote tweeted the abovementioned post, attaching a babyface edit of Vance in which he has a chubbier face, a propeller hat and a lollipop, gaining over 53,000 likes in three days (shown below).

Also on February 28th, X^[5] user @CallUpStuds quote tweeted the White House's tweet, attaching a Y'all Got Any Fun meme in which the robot says, "We got hype moments and aura," as opposed to "good foreign policy." The quote gained over 4,900 likes in three days (shown below).

That same day, X^[6] user @TheMisterFrog tweeted a babyface version of the White House photo of Vance at the Zelenskyy meeting, captioning it in all caps, "YOU SHOULDA SAID PWEASE," gaining over 27.2 million views and 363,000 likes in three days (shown below).

Later on February 28th, Redditor^[7] GermanDronePilot shared a post to the subreddit /r/UkraineWarVideoReport that attached a screen recording of President Zelenskyy's then-recent tweets, showing himself thanking world leaders in succession, likely in response to Vance's questioning. The Reddit post received over 37,000 upvotes in three days (shown below).

The abovementioned post was a repost of a tweet shared by X^[8] user @KareemRifai earlier on February 28th, which received over 20.3 million views and 428,000 likes in three days.

By March 3rd, 2025, the White House's tweet^[3] received a Community Note that highlighted the multiple times that President Zelenskyy had said, "Thank you," to the United States prior to Vance's comment (shown below).