About

Chad Gavin Newsom vs. Chud J.D. Vance refers to a series of posts comparing the high school photos of California Governor Gavin Newsom and U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance in posts that, overall, labeled Newsom as a "Chad" and Vance as a "Chud" or "nerd." According to many users, Newsom was said to be more attractive in the photos compared to Vance. Memes and viral posts comparing the two predominantly surfaced on Twitter / X in mid-2025, following Gavin Newsom's press office copying President Donald Trump with its social media presence. The primary high school photos of Newsom showed him wearing a scarf while reading a newspaper and him in a baseball uniform. The posts adopted the language and messaging of "trad" posting to serve a Democratic candidate over a Republican one.

Origin

On August 15th, 2025, X^[8] user @AnonymousLeftie tweeted, "Which way America?" attaching two photos of Governor Gavin Newsom and VP J.D. Vance with their respective families. The tweet received over 11.5 million views and 23,000 likes in four days (shown below).

On August 17th, X^[1] user @YungPutin1 tweeted two high school photos of Gavin Newsom and J.D. Vance. Newsom was seen wearing a scarf and reading a newspaper. Vance was seen standing with two girls in a men's bathroom next to urinals. The post received over 50.4 million views and 34,000 likes in two days (shown below).

Later on August 17th, 2025, X^[4] user @JDCocchiarella tweeted new photos of Newsom and Vance in high school. Newsom was seen in a baseball uniform. Vance was seen in a yearbook photo, wearing a shirt and tie. The post was captioned, "Chad Newsom > Chud Vance." It received over 73,000 likes in two days (shown below).

Spread

The abovementioned posts inspired a slew of viral quote-tweets and replies that furthered the discourse about Governor Gavin Newsom and Vice President J.D. Vance.

For instance, on August 16th, 2025, X^[9] user @JoshEakle quote-tweeted @AnonymousLeftie's post, writing, "We are reaching levels of dark woke never thought possible," gaining over 116,000 likes in three days (shown below).

On August 17th, X^[2] user @KelFitton quote-tweeted @YungPutin1's post, attaching two photos of Newsom and Vance "after graduating high school," which showed Vance in a military uniform compared to Newsom. Over two days, the tweet received over 96,000 likes (shown below).

That same day, X^[3] user @uncledoomer quote-tweeted the same post, writing, "Well, I can certainly tell who I was more like in high school," gaining over 12,000 likes in two days (shown below).

Also on August 17th, Gavin Newsom quote-tweeted @YungPutin1's post on X,^[6] writing, "I miss that scarf." The post gained roughly 292,000 likes in two days (shown below).

On August 18th, 2025, X^[5] user @avaricum777 quote-tweeted @JDCocchiarella's post, writing, "The right is so culturally dominant that left-wing influencers are now making physiognomy posts," gaining over 65,000 likes in a day (shown below).

Also on August 18th, Redditor 4alpine shared a screenshot of a reply to Newsom's quote-tweet to the /r/redscarepod ^[7] subreddit, writing, "Groypers have decided to support Newsom 2028 due to Vance’s wife being Indian." The post gained over 540 upvotes in a day (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References