Usha & JD Vance's Embarrassing Royal Gaffe Will Haunt Them Forever

Vice President JD Vance and Second Lady Usha Vance are a bit of an odd couple. During their first year in the Naval Observatory alone, the Vances endured some painfully awkward moments as a couple. Usha's attempts to defend her husband's comments about "cat ladies" made for a cringeworthy display, and JD's embarrassing outburst during a VP debate may have left him with some buyer's remorse. But while incidents like the vice president and second lady being savagely booed during a night out no doubt hurt their egos, few gaffes are likely to haunt them as much as the one they made while rubbing elbows with Jordan's royal family.

In September 2025, JD and Usha had two high-ranking Jordanian royals over for dinner, and this closed-door engagement apparently went off without a hitch. A press release shared by the Vice President's office after the fact spoke highly of the dinner. "Vice President JD Vance and Second Lady Usha Vance hosted Their Majesties King Abdullah II and Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan," it read (via The Daily Beast), adding, "The Vice President and King Abdullah II discussed the enduring partnership between Jordan and the United States and mutual efforts to promote regional peace." Sounds great. So, what's the problem? Well, the Vances did not actually meet with King Abdullah and Queen Rania. Rather, they had dinner with King Abdullah's son, Crown Prince Al Hussein bin Abdullah II, and his own wife, Princess Rajwa Al Hussein. Oops.

To be fair to the Vances, the Vice President's office did eventually issue an updated press release stating that the couple had dinner with His Royal Highness Crown Prince Al Hussein bin Abdullah II and Princess Rajwa Al Hussein. As The Daily Beast noted, the new version even acknowledged the initial mistake, though was vague enough in its language so as to not call attention to what exactly that mistake was. "A previous release was distributed containing factual errors," it read. Still, the fact that such an egregious error was made in the first place does kind of boggle the mind.

After all, not only is Prince Hussein 32 years younger than his father, but he's also 10 years younger than JD and eight years younger than Usha. Meanwhile, Princess Rajwa is the exact same age as her husband, making her about 24 years younger than mother-in-law Queen Rania. Granted, the Queen of Jordan looks pretty great for her age, with hardly a gray hair in sight. But if no one caught on to the fact that the 31-year-old Crown Prince was not, in fact, his 63-year-old father before the first version of the press release went live, then President Donald Trump may not be the only person in his administration in desperate need of glasses. Let's hope that, in addition to the updated release, the Second Family issued a private apology to the Jordanian royals.