When the VP Nominee Can’t Decide What’s Scarier
JD Vance, the venture capitalist turned senator turned VP nominee who looks like every fraternity president who ever existed, showed up to Halloween 2025 in what can only be described as a costume identity crisis. The ensemble started as a vampire, transitioned into a zombie, and ended as a confused man in face paint wondering how he got here. It perfectly captures his political journey.
The costume chaos mirrors Vance’s entire political career: start with one identity, abandon it when it’s not polling well, try something else, and end up confusing everyone including yourself. He’s the “Hillbilly Elegy” guy who became the “actually I love Trump now” guy who became the VP nominee who can’t seem to figure out what he stands for beyond whatever’s politically expedient. The Halloween costume disaster is just that energy made visible.
Vance’s Halloween costume confusion isn’t just bad planningit’s a metaphor for his entire public persona. Is he the intellectual conservative? The populist warrior? The tech bro with political ambitions? The answer is yes, no, and maybe, depending on which audience he’s talking to and what day it is.
Witnesses at the event reported Vance changing costume elements throughout the night, adding a pirate hat at one point and then removing it when someone said it “didn’t test well with suburban moms.” This is either commitment to being responsive to feedback or the saddest thing that’s happened at a Halloween party since someone brought sugar-free candy.
Vance’s VP campaign has been rocky, marked by awkward public appearances and a general sense that he’s trying too hard to be whatever people want him to be. The Halloween costume is just another example of thishe couldn’t commit to being one thing, so he tried to be everything and ended up being nothing memorable.
The makeup situation deserves special mention. Vance apparently attempted to apply his own costume makeup, resulting in a look that was less “scary monster” and more “guy who fell asleep at a party where someone had markers.” Professional makeup artists across America wept. The Ring light on his phone wasn’t enough to save this situation.
What makes this particularly painful is that Vance is supposed to be the polished, media-savvy candidate who knows how to manage his image. If this is the managed version, what does unmanaged JD Vance look like? Actually, nevermind, we don’t want to know.
Vance’s political identity evolution has been one of the most dramatic in recent politicsfrom Trump critic to Trump’s running mate in record time. The costume disaster is fitting because it shows someone still trying to figure out who they are while everyone watches. It’s relatable if it wasn’t so carefully calculated to seem relatable.
The event was a fundraiser in Ohio, where Vance still maintains some support among people who either liked his book or haven’t been paying attention to his political transformation. Reports indicate he spent most of the night explaining his costume choices to confused donors, which is basically his entire campaign in microcosm.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/jd-vances-babyface-halloween-catastrophe/0
SOURCE: Sarah Pappalardo (https://bohiney.com/jd-vances-babyface-halloween-catastrophe/0)
