JD Vance's Desperate Need To Be 'Funny' Is Why He'll Never Outrun Those Divorce Rumors

When you put together the hug between Erika Kirk and Vice President JD Vance and second lady Usha Vance making public appearances without her wedding ring, you get rumors that there's something rotten in the state of JD and Usha's marriage. The latest development is a photo on social media that appears to show JD yelling at Usha. It's almost certainly fake, and yet, JD couldn't resist commenting and trying to make a joke out of what certainly would have faded into nothingness if he'd just left it alone.

JD posted on X (formerly known as Twitter) in response to the photo, saying, "I always wear an undershirt when I go out in public to have a fight loudly with my wife." 

I always wear an undershirt when I go out in public to have a fight loudly with my wife. https://t.co/LUivOsVv2u

— JD Vance (@JDVance) December 9, 2025

I'm all for a deadpan, sarcastic joke, but they should be good ones. In this case, I'm just left wondering what he was thinking or how he thought this would land. If the photo isn't real, and the marriage is strong, which JD has said it is, then why is he wasting time and bringing more eyes to the photo? Is this another example of him getting a "kick out of" people questioning his marriage to Usha? That's how he described it to NBC News in a recent interview: that the gossip about a rift is funny. Are you trying to bring the rest of us into the joke between you and Usha, that it's funny that people would question your marriage? If so, please feel free to keep us out of it in the future.

But then JD Vance also said in that NBC News interview that being the VP wasn't all fun and games. "There are certainly ways in which it's difficult on the family," Vance said. "I'm not going to pretend that it isn't. But it's the sacrifice that we signed up for." So, in honor of that sacrifice, you chose to make a joke for your 4.9 million followers that directs them to look at a photo of you appearing to yell at your wife. Is that making things easier on your family? 

There are some online who seem to think that JD is playing his own version of 4D chess and the rest of us apparently just can't fathom his depth of wit. But JD trying to make jokes just never quite works, and all that posts like this do is play into the idea that JD is desperate to be liked above all else, trying to seem like he's a regular dude.

We've seen him "joke" around before, apparently putting getting a laugh over the comfort of Usha Vance, even when she's standing right next to him. Look at the deeply awkward moment when JD made everyone think about his sex life with Usha just a couple of days ago. Admittedly, he was retelling something that had started with Donald Trump, but it was his choice to repeat the immature joke that Trump made about someone's manhood and their shoe size. And in an apparent game of one-upsmanship, JD chose to bring Usha into it.

To be fair, who doesn't like to be liked and get a good laugh out of people? But JD Vance is the vice president of the United States, so I'd have hoped that he'd have the gravitas and self-confidence to not engage with (or be) a troll on Twitter, I mean X, and try to make jokes about the state of your marriage. Why can't he rise above and just ignore it? What was it that Shakespeare said about protesting too much? And doesn't he have better things to do during the workday?

JD, if the photo wasn't real, you could have issued a statement that it was an AI image, and then talked about how the Trump administration will be working to make sure that actual fake news like this can be easily reported and taken down. Why did you have to try to be funny? And is joking about domestic conflict ever really a good look?