JD Vance’s Campaign Still Won’t Deny It’s Him In Viral Drag Photo Leaked By Classmate

The Trump-Vance campaign team has failed to deny that a viral photograph that appears to show Donald Trump’s Republican running mate, JD Vance dressed as a woman and wearing a blonde wig and thick black eye-liner is indeed of him.

The photograph, which was posted on X, formerly Twitter, on Sunday, quickly spread across the internet and began trending under the hashtag #SofaLoren, a reference to the iconic Italian actress Sophia Loren and made-up claims that the Republican senator had sex with a couch.

The Daily Beast reported that a spokesperson for the Republican vice presidential pick did not deny the photo’s authenticity when approached by the news outlet, and did not offer any further comment.

new: i have obtained a photo of jd vance in drag while at yale law school pic.twitter.com/jYf14Lwa4D

— matt (@mattxiv) August 11, 2024

The source who surfaced the alleged photo, Travis Whitfill, claims the picture was taken by a fellow Yale classmate in 2012, when Vance was attending law school at the university. He says the picture was sent to him by another friend. Whitfill then sent it to podcast host Matt Bernstein, who then shared it to X.

“It’s from a group chat of Vance’s fellow classmates and is from a friend of a friend,” he told the Daily Beast. “I believe it was grabbed from Facebook and was taken at a Halloween party.”

Whitfill shared screenshots of the text conversation in which he first received the photo.

“I didn’t know him,” Whitfill wrote, “from all the sources I’ve heard, JD was actually a good guy in law school. Not sure what happened after though…”

“Doing my part for democracy 💁🏻‍♂️,” he added in another post.

Many commenters online were quick to point out Vance’s anti-LGBTQ legislative history. The Ohio senator introduced the “Protect Children’s Innocence Act,” which aims to criminalize medical institutions that provide gender-affirming care to minors.

He has also supported measures to limit classroom discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity, and labeled critics of so-called “don’t say gay” legislation “groomers.”