White House Accidentally Roasts JD Vance While Trying to Defend Him

The White House appeared to accidentally insult Vice President JD Vance after trying to defend him over an awkward mistake during one of his own speeches.

Vance was in Milwaukee on Wednesday to promote the Trump administration’s crackdown on benefit fraud when the moment unfolded.

During the speech, the vice president unveiled a large placard featuring Markita Barnes, a Milwaukee woman who was sentenced to 10 years in prison in March after being convicted of federal healthcare fraud.

“Now, I want to be clear that the woman in the back did nothing wrong,” Vance said while pointing to the image. “But look at this woman in the front with the smug look and the Louis Vuitton bag. A woman who quite literally stole from young mothers who needed prenatal care.”

There was just one problem: viewers could barely see what he was talking about.

As Vance directed the audience to “look at this woman,” the lighting at the venue completely washed out the placard on camera, obscuring Barnes and the second woman standing behind her.

The awkward timing was quickly spotted by Acyn Torabi, a senior digital editor for MeidasTouch who frequently shares clips of political figures on X. Torabi posted a six-second clip of the moment to his 761,000 followers.

But the White House Rapid Response 47 account, which was created to push back against what the administration calls “fake news,” seemed to misunderstand what had happened.

The account appeared to think Torabi had intentionally blurred or blocked the image, rather than simply posting an unedited clip of Vance’s speech where the placard was obscured by the setup and lighting.

“Your dumb a– is shielding a criminal who stole $2.4 million in taxpayer-funded benefits meant to help at-risk pregnant women and women with young kids,” the White House Rapid Response 47 account posted. “She’s spending the next decade in federal prison thanks to this Administration’s relentless work to end the fraud.”

That response immediately opened the door to mockery, because critics pointed out that the obscured image appeared to be Vance’s own staging problem, not anything Torabi had done.

MeidasTouch’s main X account quickly jumped on the mistake.

“Um… Do they think @Acyn blurred their faces? It was Vance who obscured her by placing the board the way he did,” the account posted. “The White House essentially just called Vance a ‘dumb a–.’”

Ron Filipkowski, editor-in-chief of MeidasTouch, also mocked the mix-up.

“The White House called Acyn a ‘dumb a–’ for posting an unedited video of Vance and quoting him,” Filipkowski wrote. “Quality day all around for the WH comms shop.”