JD Vance has endured a tumultuous month since being named as Donald Trump’s running mate, from dodging accusations of intimate relations with a couch (a sentence that never gets old) to attracting the ire of legions of cat ladies.
Such a rocky ascent to the public eye is bound to invoke negative reactions, which for Vance have come courtesy of Jennifer Aniston, Glenn Close, and the Avengers-esque community that is the Swifties. Now, fans are recalling yet another Vance critic whose scathing comments about the Ohio senator predate him joining the Trump ticket.
In 2022, Jennifer Lawrence fronted the October cover of Vogue, and she saved some choice words for Vance, who at the time was running for senate in Ohio. Referencing his memoir, Hillbilly Elegy, Lawrence said Vance is “not a hillbilly if he wrote a huge book.”
It added to broader discussions around the book’s representation of Appalachia, and whether Vance, a Yale graduate, was best poised to analyze the poverty and addiction of the region. As such, Lawrence searingly scolded the politician with just three syllables, describing Vance as “a rich tw*t.” Being the self-aware icon she is, Lawrence conceded that she too is a “rich tw*t”, but added that she’s not the one who is “running for office pretending that I’m not.”
The Vogue interview also saw Lawrence touch on important topics like climate change, the two-party system, and the overturning of Roe vs. Wade (“get the government out of my snatch”), but Vance of course didn’t respond to those more pressing issues. Instead, like his now-boss Trump, Vance used the moment to deliver personal attacks, commenting on her acting career which, for the record, has spawned four Oscar nominations and two billion-dollar franchises.
“If we’re criticizing each other, I’d just say that Jennifer Lawrence’s performance in Hunger Games 3 was a little one-dimensional,” Vance said in response to Lawrence on Fox News. “I think her movies are great, I don’t really care that much about her politics.” Of course, the fact that Vance even saw three of the Hunger Games films is evidence that perhaps he’s a bigger fan than he leads on, which is unsurprising given that his party seems hell-bent on instituting a similar, Capitol-style dystopia in the form of Project 2025.
Appealing to those voters who are on the fence might’ve been the smarter move, especially in the context of this election, but we shouldn’t look to the man who is staunchly opposed to LGBTQ rights, yet wears drag, for any form of political savvy.