Most of the news emerging since the announcement of JD Vance as Donald Trump’s running mate has been pretty dire, from the resurfacing of his particular stances on things like abortion to his old comments about someone he now suddenly admires.
With such an influx of less-than-positive coverage around Vance, it’s nice to have a dose of more lighthearted fare, which this time comes in the form of a viral meme (because, what else?). Shared on X by earlier this week, the meme in question shows a close-up of Vance, but his hair is noticeably whiter and there’s a fly perched atop his head.
If that description doesn’t quite make sense, I’ll invite you to cast your minds back to 2020 (a pretty painful exercise, but stay with me). It was during the debate between then-Vice President Mike Pence and Kamala Harris that a fly landed gracefully on the former’s head, resting there for a whopping total of two minutes.
Naturally, since nothing remains serious online, #FlyGate spawned a litany of memes and viral moments and basically became synonymous with Pence himself. Now, we’ve thankfully been reminded of the moment thanks to @TheReal_Jaime’s clever editing tricks, with the fly now finding a new home on the head of Pence’s replacement.
Getting a glimpse of the former VP might’ve been a trigger for some, but X users took the meme in good humour, replying with laughing memes, suggesting Vance is “more of a tick guy”, and going so far as to edit Trump’s hair on his new underling.
The whereabouts of the fly remains unknown, but I think a star on the Walk of Fame is in order.