The crude nature of the Donald Trump era of politics frequently gives us images that would be too on-the-nose in a work of fiction: the feast of the seven Big Macs, the awkward handling of the Bible in front of St. John’s and so on.
Soft-handed Yalie and “freedom seed” enthusiast JD Vance added one more to the scrapbook on Monday when Ohio State University’s football team attended the White House in celebration of their national championship. Vance fumbled the Buckeyes’ trophy to the stirring strands of “We Are The Champions.”
Vance briefly attempted to resettle the gold-and-steel trophy on its base with the help of Ohio State running back TreVeyon Henderson, before giving up. As other Buckeyes looked on with a mix of shock and embarrassment, Vance left the base on his lectern and held the top of the trophy up for the cameras.
The approximately 30 lb. trophy is meant to separate so that players can hold the top section aloft. But Vance couldn’t deny the bad look of butterfingers-ing the championship trophy of his alma mater on the White House lawn.
“I didn’t want anyone after Ohio State to get the trophy so I decided to break it,” he wrote on X.
Trump 2.0 has been packed with awkward photo-ops at the White House. The Trump administration has made headlines in the early going, squabbling with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and offering corporate sponsorships for the traditional Easter Egg Roll. Vance certainly doesn’t hold a monopoly of awkward moments on the lawn, as Trump himself turned the residence’s driveway into the backdrop for an automobile ad to bolster the flagging fortunes of his associate Elon Musk.
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