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What's Up With Donald Trump's 'Menacing' Official Presidential Portrait? Memes About Trump and J.D. Vance's Inaugural Photos Explained
President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect J.D. Vance's official presidential portraits were released days ahead of the 47th President's official inauguration, and the American people are having some strong reactions to the artistic choices made by the duo.
The President's new inaugural portrait shows him staring menacingly into the camera, his eyebrow cocked and his face lit from below, while the Vice President's bright blue eyes pop in a similarly lit photo.
Many internet users have theorized that the President was channeling his infamous mugshot in his official photo, while others took the time to compare the new image to the one from his first term in 2016 in which he can be seen smiling carefree into the camera. Jokes about both portraits have already spread across the internet — so here's a quick recap of the memes surrounding Trump and Vance's official portraits.
When Were Donald Trump and J.D. Vance's Official Portraits Released?
Images of Donald Trump and J.D. Vance's official photos began making the rounds late on January 15th, 2025, with internet users quickly remarking on how different Trump's photo looked from his last time in office.
Several users compared Trump's official portrait with his older 2016 portrait, with X user @TerminusVinter comparing the photo to a notable meme audio of "Fullmetal Alchemist" being said in an upbeat voice and then in a deeper voice, which played between ad breaks during the anime. X user @untemi0 then converted the photos into the Fullmetal Alchemist title screen with the relevant meme sound, garnering hundreds of thousands of views.
there you go pic.twitter.com/aVUQKNTcoG
— U N T E M I (@untemi0) January 16, 2025
What Were The Memes People Made About Trump's Official Portrait?
On January 16th, 2025, Redditor /u/jobomaja888 posted an image comparing Trump's official inaugural portrait with his August 2023 mugshot to the /r/pics subreddit, gathering over 48,000 upvotes on a post in which he called Trump a "caricature of himself."
Other internet users had more lighthearted reactions to the image, with the Instagram page @usa_transportation posting a meme comparing Trump's 2016 portrait with his 2025 photo alongside a caption that read, "Me trucking in 2020 / Me trucking in 2025," and the X account @creepydotorg comparing Trump's portraits to the Smiling and Unsmiling Seong Gi-hun meme.
How Did People React To J.D. Vance's Official Portrait?
Editing J.D. Vance's photos to exaggerate his features is a common joke online, and internet users memeing the portrait did not stray far from this theme.
On January 16th, 2025, X user @massivecanine posted a tweet that compared the portrait to the People with Blue Eyes meme, while X user @awshuqs edited and exaggerated Vance's features in another humorous edit.
For the full history of Donald Trump and JD Vance's Official Portraits, be sure to check out Know Your Meme's encyclopedia entry for more information.
