Claim:
A photo shared online in December 2025 authentically showed US Vice President JD Vance arguing with his wife, Usha Vance, in a restaurant.
Rating:
Rating: false
In December 2025, a picture of US Vice President JD Vance allegedly arguing with his wife Usha Vance in a restaurant circulated on social media.
The picture appeared to show JD Vance wearing a white t-shirt and a stern expression as he sat across from Usha Vance. A Facebook user who shared it (archived) wrote:
It seems that things are not so good in Republicanistan. Usha is a liberal. It always was. Apparently they had too [sic] quarrel loud enough to quiet the restaurant. Why is he wearing a t-shirt?
The image has circulated elsewhere on Facebook and X (archived here and here). In short, it was fake.
After Snopes initially published its story, YouTuber Keith Edwards reached out to confirm that the image was a thumbnail he created for a video from October 2025, describing it as “fake”. Edwards told us he used AI platform ChatGPT to create the image.
The thumbnail matched the image circulating on social media. In both, the man wore the same facial expression and the woman was positioned the same. A reverse image search did not lead us to any previous versions of the fabricated image.
JD Vance himself appeared to support the conclusion that the image is fake in a December 9 X (archived) post, responding to a user who shared the image with a comment that appeared to mock the rumor: “I always wear a T-shirt when I go out in public to argue with my wife.”
We also ran the image through three AI detection platforms: Hive, Sightengine, and Image Whisperer. Sightengine estimated a 97% probability that the image was generated by AI, while Image Whisperer concluded with “high confidence” that it was generated by AI.
Hive, however, flagged the image as “not likely to contain AI-generated or deepfake content.” It is worth noting that these tools are not always accurate and their results should be interpreted with caution.
Prior to Edwards’ confirmation, the team at GetReal Securitywhich specializes in digital media authentication, also analyzed the image for Snopes.
Only Faridco-founder of GetReal and a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, told us that the low image quality made forensic analysis difficult. However, the team found “biometric anomalies”, suggesting that the image “may be generated by artificial intelligence or is simply a photo of someone who looks like [JD] Vance.”
“In particular, the facial features in the image do not match contemporary images of Vance,” Farid added. Contemporary images are photographs taken around the same time that are used to verify the authenticity of another image.
Matthew Stamm, an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at Drexel University, told Snopes that he and his doctoral student analyzed the image to determine whether it was generated by AI, using a specialized forensics tool that detects subtle “fingerprints” left by generative AI. Stamm said the tool “determined with about 95 percent confidence that it could not detect traces left by generative artificial intelligence.”
However, he cautioned that this does not prove the image is real and cannot definitively rule out AI generation. Factors such as its size, low resolution and repeated sharing on social media made analysis difficult, changing “the quality of the forensic traces we’re analyzing, similar to how fingerprints at a crime scene might be stained,” Stamm explained.
The fabricated image spread online amid rumors of a breakup in the Vances’ marriage, which began circulating in October 2025. Photos of Usha Vance without her wedding ring taken the following month further fueled the speculation.
However, a spokesman USA Today said in a Nov. 21 statement that Usha Vance “is a mother of three young children who does a lot of cooking, takes a lot of baths, and sometimes forgets her ring.” Other publicly available Getty images in November it showed Usha Vance wearing her wedding ring.
One December 4 interview with NBC NewsJD Vance said the couple’s marriage is “as strong as ever”.
Sources:
X (formerly Twitter)9 Dec. 2025, x.com/JDVance/status/1998459532977099256. Accessed 10 December 2025.
“Hany Farid | UC Berkeley School of Information”. www.ischool.berkeley.eduwww.ischool.berkeley.edu/people/hany-farid. Accessed 10 December 2025.
“Matthew Stamm – Drexel University College of Engineering”. Drexel University College of Engineeringdrexel.edu/engineering/about/faculty-staff/S/stamm-matthew/. Accessed 10 December 2025.
PerryCook, Taija. “Genuine photos of Usha Vance without her wedding ring?” SnopesSnopes.com, 21 Nov. 2025, www.snopes.com/fact-check/usha-vance-without-wedding-ring/. Accessed 10 December 2025.
Stahl, Jay. “Usha Vance, the missing wedding ring, belongs to him first and foremost.” USA TODAY2025, www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/11/21/usha-vance-melania-trump-no-wedding-ring/87399269007/. Accessed 10 December 2025.
Gomez, Henry J. “JD Vance Says His Marriage to Usha Is ‘As Strong As It’s Ever Been.’ NBC News5 Dec. 2025, www.nbcnews.com/politics/jd-vance/jd-vance-marriage-usha-strong-rcna247419. Accessed 10 December 2025.
Updates:
December 10, 2025: This story has been updated to include comment from Matthew Stamm, associate professor at Drexel University.
December 10, 2025: This story was updated to include confirmation from a YouTuber that he created the image as a thumbnail for a video in October 2025. He described it as fake. As such, I have added a rating to this story.