Fact Check: Yes, Photos Do Show JD Vance Wearing Dress and Blonde Wig While at Yale Law School

Claim:

Photos shared in August 2024 authentically showed U.S. Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance wearing a dress and a blonde wig.

Rating:

On Aug. 11 2024, X user and podcaster Matt Bernstein posted a photo purportedly showing U.S. Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance once wearing a dress and a blonde wig.

Bernstein captioned the image, which had amassed more than 17.6 million views as of this writing: "New: i have obtained a photo of jd vance in drag while at yale law school."

Nearly 24 hours later, Bernstein posted another picture, captioned: "A second photo has hit my inbox."

He also shared both photos on his verified Instagram account.

(X user @mattxiv)

Snopes spoke to numerous sources who all confirmed the authenticity of the images — meaning they were not digitally manipulated, not AI-generated, and indeed showed JD Vance — which is why we rated this claim "True."

A representative for the Ohio senator who asked not to be named told Snopes via email: "JD put on a bad wig at a party in college - not exactly scandalous."

A member of the Yale Law School class of 2013 – Vance's class – also confirmed to Snopes via phone call under the condition of anonymity that "classmates have confirmed that the two pictures posted are real."

Likewise, another fellow student at Yale, Travis Whitfill, claimed to have originally released the first photo.

(X user @twhitfill)

"It's from a group chat of Vance's fellow classmates and is from a friend of a friend," Whitfill told American news website The Daily Beast. "I believe it was grabbed from Facebook and was taken at a Halloween party."

Whitfill also pointed to a site called "jdvanceindrag.com" (archived), which directed visitors to The Trevor Project – a nonprofit dedicated to "suicide prevention efforts among lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning youth" – as well as fundraising platform ActBlue and nonprofit organizations Vote Forward and Vote.org.

Sources:

JD Vance Hates Drag? https://jdvanceindrag.com/. Accessed 12 Aug. 2024.

'J.D. Vance's Team Won't Comment on His Viral Drag Photo'. The New Republic. The New Republic, https://newrepublic.com/post/184764/jd-vance-team-wont-comment-viral-drag-photo. Accessed 12 Aug. 2024.

Lazarus, Lily Mae. 'JD Vance's Campaign Won't Deny That's Him in Viral Drag Photo'. The Daily Beast, 11 Aug. 2024. www.thedailybeast.com, https://www.thedailybeast.com/jd-vances-campaign-wont-deny-thats-him-in-viral-drag-photo.