His notably expressionless visage has certainly caught attention, though his own eyebrows remain unraised. “His face literally isn’t moving. Botox overload,” remarked one user on X, tweeting about the situation. Another user humorously commented, “I knew he vanished for a coupla days to have work done…” Thus unfolds the tale of Vance’s transformation from an Appalachian teenager to an intriguing political figure. Cue Sade’s “Smooth Operator.”

This isn’t the first time Vice President JD Vance’s appearance has sparked debate. The striking differences in JD’s before-and-after photos are hard to ignore. The youthful JD, fresh from Yale Law School, is a thing of the past. Today, he opts for a consistently maintained dark beard. Rumor has it, this very beard was a topic of friction between JD and Donald Trump before JD was chosen as Trump’s running mate. “J.D. has a beard. But Trump is a clean-shaven guy. He just doesn’t like facial hair,” a source revealed to The Bulwark in July 2024. “You just never know.” Ultimately, JD’s trademark beard won over Trump. “It looks good,” Trump remarked during a segment on “The Brian Kilmeade Show,” shortly before he officially selected JD as his vice-presidential nominee. “He looks like a young Abraham Lincoln,” Trump added. If you say so, Mr. Trump.

Unfortunately, this is not the first time Vice President JD Vance has been called into question over his ever-changing appearance. JD’s transformation in side-by-side pics is head-turning, to say the least. Long gone are the days of a baby-faced JD, fresh out of Yale law school. These days, the VP prefers to rock a dark beard 24/7. It was actually rumored that JD’s signature beard was a point of contention between him and Donald Trump, prior to being tapped as the then-presidential hopeful’s running mate. “J.D. has a beard. But Trump is a clean-shaven guy. He just doesn’t like facial hair,” a source told The Bulwark in July 2024. “You just never know.” In the end, however, it appears that JD and his trusty beard won Trump over. “It looks good,” Trump said during an interview on “The Brian Kilmeade Show,” mere days before he officially tapped JD as his VP pick. “He looks like a young Abraham Lincoln.” If you say so, DJT.

Still, it’s JD’s supposed use of eyeliner and mascara that really gets people worked up. Over the years, he has been unable to beat all of the eyeliner allegations. Even his wife, second lady Usha Vance, has come to his defense over the idea that he wakes up every morning and dutifully applies his own smokey eye. “They’re all natural,” Usha insisted in a statement to Puck News (via Daily Beast) about his thick, dark lashes. “I’ve always been jealous of those lashes,” she confessed. If there are actually cosmetics at work, the world may never know.