JD Vance Stumbles Into Signalgate Drama Thanks To His Lamest Move Yet

By Lauren Waters
JD Vance giving a thumbs-up Brett Carlsen/Getty Images

If there's one thing that JD Vance never fails to make obvious, it's his desperate need to be liked. And that often comes in the form of a sense of humor that doesn't always go over well — like his lame attempt to joke about Jimmy Kimmel's suspension that had everyone rolling their eyes, or when he tried to get in on the memes about him with one of the worst celebrity Halloween costumes of 2025. And now, it's been revealed that he did the same thing amidst Pete Hegseth's most embarrassing moment in the Trump administration.

Back in March, Defense Secretary Hegseth found himself in hot water for revealing sensitive information in a group chat on Signal, which was subsequently leaked to the public. Today, a more than 80-page-long report on the debacle was released courtesy of the Defense Department inspector general. The report revealed that after the big group chat leak, Vance popped in to do one of the things he does best: he made a dumb joke. On March 25, the day after The Atlantic article that originally shared the messages was published, Vance sent a message to the infamous group chat. "This chat's kind of dead. Anything going on?" the VP joked.

JD Vance's apparent attempt to blow off the scandal isn't working

Pete Hegseth and JD Vance frowning Pool/Getty Images

Despite plenty of talk about the dangers of classified information being shared in a group chat with some accidental phone numbers added, the administration has maintained that it wasn't actually a big deal. At the time, Donald Trump said that the group chat included "... no classified information as I understand it" and added, "We've pretty much looked into it. It's pretty simple, to be honest ... It's just something that can happen. It can happen," per ABC News. So, it's likely that JD Vance's choice to pop into the group chat to make a joke was probably not just an attempt to seem cool and laidback, but also a way to reinforce the notion that any uproar about the group chat was an overreaction.

A screenshot of Vance's joke in the group chat is now making the rounds on X, formerly known as Twitter. And, unfortunately for him, his message is going over about as well there as it did in the group chat. "He's such a f***ing loser... you just know they made a group without him," one X-user commented. "The war crimes version of 'You up?'" another joked. "He sounds like a guy who never gets invited to anything," one commenter added. Evidently, in the end, Vance's joke may not be as funny as he thought.

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