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Saturday Night Live star Cecily Strong has mocked Donald Trump’s running mate and Hillbilly Elegy creator JD Vance for wearing eyeliner.
In a series of digs made to raise funds for Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, “Comics for Kamala”, Strong was joined by California Representative Eric Swalwell.
The Ghostbusters actor said she had reached out to both current and former SNL writers including Katie Rich, Josh Patten, and Pete Schulz to come up with the jabs.
“JD Vance looks like a composite of every guy that’s called you a b***h on Bumble,” she joked.
She said the Republican “is confusing because his rhetoric wants us to panic about immigrants, but his eyeliner wants us to panic at the disco.”
Vance has hit out at claims that he and his team are “weird” as he defended himself against attacks, blaming “social media interns”.
“JD Vance has been such a mistake Trump keeps calling him Eric,” she added, referring to the son of the Home Alone 2 star.
And Trump did not escape Strong’s ruthless roast as she likened his ear bandage, following an assassination attempt, to a sanitary towel.
“Trump wearing a maxi pad on his ear is the most support he has shown for women’s reproductive health,” she joked.
“There is speculation that Trump is unhappy with Vance and is thinking about getting rid of him. But he better hurry because it’s been six weeks.”
Speculation that Vance wears eyeliner to his public appearances has been rife after a series of images and videos appeared to show a black smudge accentuating his waterline.
Photojournalist Zach D Roberts shared a photo of Vance taken during a recent speaking engagement, in which a black line was clearly visible under his bottom eyelashes.
Cecily Strong: Vance looks like a composite of every guy who’s called you a bitch on bumble.. he is confusing because his rhetoric wants us to panic about immigrants but his eyeliner wants us to panic at the disco. He has been such a mistake that Trump keeps calling him Eric pic.twitter.com/kD6zvIgrXE
— Acyn (@Acyn) August 6, 2024
“I really thought people were joking about this, but then I photographed him last week. Vance 100 percent does wear eyeliner,” Roberts captioned the post.
The speculation grew so much that it prompted comedian Jimmy Fallon to poke fun at Vance in an episode of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. During the 22 July broadcast, Fallon showed an image of a graph increasing along its x-axis, along with the mocking tagline: “Google searches for, ‘Does JD Vance wear eyeliner?’”
The late-night talk show host then cut to a photo of Vance, once again showing a distinct black line under his eyes.
The Independent’s Meredith Clark writes, “It may be possible that Vance uses eyeliner for live events and TV spots, just like many public figures wear makeup to enhance their appearance on camera. However, the reason why so many people online can’t stop talking about Vance’s rumoured makeup is because it’s ‘hypocritical’ due to the Republican’s staunch anti-LGBTQ+ beliefs.”
“We’re fine with men who wear makeup. What we’re not fine with is hypocrites who make policies, harmful policies, against men who wear makeup,” Tiktoker Casey (@mamasissiesays) noted in a viral video of her attempting to find his exact shade.
