JD Vance has spoken out about that viral photo of him supposedly berating his wife, Usha.
The vice president, 41, shut down rumors of trouble in paradise after social media was set abuzz by what appeared to be an AI-generated photo of him chiding the second lady, 39.
The image showed a man clad in a white t-shirt with his forehead knotted in frustration as he spoke to a woman in black with her head facing a restaurant table.
“I always wear an undershirt when I go out in public to have a fight loudly with my wife,” Vance wrote in a sarcastic X post on Tuesday.
The photo began circulating over the weekend after Thomas Clay Jr., an influencer who says he “busts Republican’s [sic] dumb a--es on the daily,” shared it in a Facebook post that garnered thousands of likes and comments.
“Looks like things are not so good in Republicanistan,” he wrote. “Usha is a liberal. Always has been. Apparently they were having and [sic] argument loud enough to quiet the restaurant. Why is he wearing a tee shirt?”
The image quickly caught fire, with social media users across several platforms chiming in. Online AI image detectors, however, found that it was likely fabricated.
The Daily Beast has reached out to Clay for comment.
It’s not the first time Vance has had to speak out about his marriage, which began in 2014. Wild speculation about his relationship with Usha ran rampant after a series of events raised eyebrows.
In October, the Catholic-convert vice president drew outrage after publicly wishing for his Hindu wife to follow his journey to Christianity.
“Do I hope eventually that she is somehow moved by the same thing that I was moved in by church? Yeah, I honestly do wish that because I believe in the Christian Gospel, and I hope eventually my wife comes to see it the same way,” he said.
It didn’t help that Usha was later seen out and about without her wedding ring.
But Vance said they are unfazed by the gossip and focused on their three children, aged three, five, and eight.
“I think that we kind of get a kick out of it,” he told NBC News last week, explaining that Usha forgot her ring in their rush to get to the White House.
“She was like, ‘Oh, if I don’t go back and get them, there’s going to be some ridiculous psycho who talks about it on social media,’” Vance recalled. “And I was like, let them. It’s not even worth the trip to run back upstairs. So we actually have a little bit of fun with it. And we thought that whole viral social media cycle was kind of funny.”
