Throughout the 2024 run for the White House and even beyond his inauguration, Vice President JD Vance has been at the center of some controversy. Vance has also been at the center of quite a few rumors, but one has persisted unanswered throughout: Is he wearing eyeliner? The former Ohio senator and “Hillbilly Elegy” author has raised eyebrows with his deep, dark lashes that boldly accentuate his surprisingly blue eyes time and time again.

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While Vance himself has not commented on it, many social media users can’t help but weigh in on his guyliner style. Many comedians and actors have turned to using thick, dark eyeliner as their go-to hook when doing impressions of Vance on TV and in TikTok sketches — including Haley Joel Osment’s brilliant Vance parody on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” — and makeup enthusiasts have repeatedly gotten into debates about whether or not he’s rocking makeup.

It should be noted that there’s absolutely no judgement here regarding his possible use of eyeliner. Instead, there’s a bit of judgement about the way he potentially applies his rumored eyeliner, in that sometimes it seems Vance goes overboard and ends up in full-blown emo-punk territory — just not as cool as that sounds.

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JD Vance delivered his first speech on the campaign trail in July 2024, after Donald Trump tapped him to be his running mate. JD took the stage at the Republican National Convention (RNC) at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and spoke to his GOP colleagues and voters in an effort to win people over and get their support.

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Regardless of how that speech went, one thing people took away from it was that JD seemed to really have a heavy hand with his eyeliner. JD hadn’t spoken before on such an immense platform like the RNC stage in a prime headliner slot, and his bold, dark eyes sparked the first major rumors about his preference for guyliner.

The speculation finally got around enough that JD’s wife, Usha Vance, spoke out to shoot down the speculation. Usha told Puck News (via Daily Mail) in August 2024 that her husband’s dark, thick lashes are “all natural” and added, “I’ve always been jealous of those lashes.” But her commentary didn’t stop the rumors from growing.

When it came time for JD Vance to face off against Tim Walz at the vice presidential debate in October 2024, his dark lashes once again spurred numerous social media users to weight in on his makeup — both to genuinely question whether he was wearing it, or to poke fun at the rumors in an effort to low-key annoy him. One commenter on X, formerly known as Twitter, wrote, “Fun inside fact: JD Vance has to do his lil ‘side eye’ thing once every three minutes per the terms of his contract with L’Oreal Paris ColorLast™ Eyeliner.”

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However, former U.S. representative George Santos disagreed, and claimed that Vance wasn’t, in fact, using makeup at all. “Vance does NOT use [eyeliner],” Santos wrote on X (via The Cut). “I’ve met him in person before he was a senator and I can confirm he has long eyelashes and they cast a shadow on his waterline when [in] studios full of lights … Grow up people!” Santos went on to rhetorically ask if Vance was using Ozempic because, “He’s looking thin and good!” (per UInterview).

Whether or not JD Vance uses eyeliner, there’s no denying that he certainly has some deep dark lashes that frame his deep-set eyes. Those who believe he’s trying to make his blue eyes pop felt vindicated when they saw his inaugural portrait, although it seemed that his rumored eyeliner game was slightly off when it came time to pose for the professional White House photographer. Still, one X user replied to the photo by sharing a gif showing KISS frontman Gene Simmons in full makeup, including black makeup encircling his wild eyes. They laughingly captioned the post, “All I can see.”

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Photo: J.D. Vance inaugural portrait. pic.twitter.com/QxIE0R5Sry

— AZ Intel (@AZ_Intel_) January 16, 2025

The portraits themselves were first unveiled on Donald Trump’s personal website, with a bizarrely aggressive headline to the post: “Official Portraits Released — And They Go Hard ????” While the headline feels remarkably unpresidential — as do the portraits themselves — you can’t actually fault it for being incorrect. The portraits do look intense and, in fact, “go hard,” for whatever that’s worth. Although many couldn’t help but point out that both Vance and Trump appear to be absolutely obsessed with heavy-handed application of makeup, with Trump having a history of makeup fails.

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Before he grew his beard out, a clean-shaved and nearly unrecognizable JD Vance was often seen with much less bold, dark-lined eyes. However, as he entered the political sphere, Vance grew a beard, giving him a more mature and rugged look. Paradoxically, his eyelashes began to look more stylish over time. While the eyeliner speculation has been brewing since the start of the 2024 campaign, fans who looked back have seen this trend with Vance in interviews from years ago.

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In July 2024, journalist James Surowiecki reposted a video of an interview Vance sat down for in September 2021, in which the future vice president chatted with a political podcaster via video chat from his home office. Sharing a clip of the interview on X, Surowiecki earnestly asked, “Why does JD Vance always look like he’s wearing eyeliner? He doesn’t really seem like the goth-boy type.” The wave of responses flooded in with many supporting his claim and speculating what brand of eyeliner Vance would gravitate toward. One user made a valid critique, writing, “His eyes disappear into his cheeks without it.”

For a vehemently conservative vice president, who is part of an administration with staunchly right-wing views on LGBTQ+ communities and legislation, one might not expect to see JD Vance in a dress, blonde wig, and makeup. However, photos surfaced in August 2024 that purportedly show Vance in drag at a party during his time in Yale Law School. In itself, there’s no problem and nobody should be shamed or mocked for their appreciation of drag. Except for the fact that Vance has routinely voiced his support for proposed anti-drag laws and has labelled drag queens “groomers” (via X). So the irony is particularly powerful.

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Vance himself has not confirmed the authenticity of the photos. When asked for comment by The Daily Beast, a rep for Vance’s campaign didn’t refute that the pictures were real, nor did they provide an additional statement. Meanwhile, an unnamed source inside Vance’s camp did confirm their authenticity to Snopes, but tried to downplay the drag aspect, stating, “JD put on a bad wig at a party in college — not exactly scandalous.” Which either means the unnamed source is underselling the extent of Vance’s ensemble, or that Vance actually came to the college party already wearing a dress and thick eyeliner, and then put on a wig. Either way, he’s certainly gotten better at making his cerulean eyes shine since his Yale days, whether makeup is involved or not.

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