JD Vance torched as 'sniveling debate kid' as writer attacks 'weird cosplaying as SEAL'

Vice President JD Vance was torched after he boasted online Monday about having endured a 90-minute training session with Navy SEALs, which journalist Edith Olmsted described as a “recent cosplaying adventure” in an op-ed published Tuesday in The New Republic.

“It’s not entirely clear what prompted Vance’s recent cosplaying adventure. Perhaps it has something to do with his recent presidential endorsement from Erika Kirk, a closely-held friend of the vice president,” Olmsted wrote.

“Or maybe it has something to do with his slipping poll numbers… In order to claim the full support of MAGA, it seems Vance may have decided it’s time to prove himself more than a sniveling debate kid.”

Vance apparently took to social media immediately after he’d completed his training session alongside Navy SEALs at Base Coronado in California, pledging to “post some photos when I get them.” While his promise to “post some photos” was met with ridicule by online critics, Vance made good on his pledge and later shared seven photos of himself jogging, carrying a heavy log and climbing an obstacle course cargo net.

The following day on Tuesday, Vance even poked fun at himself, reposting the photo of himself carrying a heavy log, albeit edited to replace his face with the popular meme version of the vice president, a fatter version of himself with long, curly hair.

“Fixed it,” Vance wrote in a social media post on X Tuesday, alongside the edited photo of himself.

For Olmsted, however, no amount of training with elite military units would help Vance achieve what she suspected was his goal, that being to “win over [the] manosphere.”

“No, JD Vance will not be our first ‘Chad’ president,” Olmsted wrote.

While Vance is currently leading among potential GOP presidential frontrunners for 2028, less than 47% of Republican voters had Vance as their first choice, a significant drop from the 54.6% who picked Vance in September, according to a recent survey by AtlasIntel.