Second Lady Usha Vance is taking aim at The New York Times after the newspaper suggested her maternity wardrobe carries political symbolism.
Vance, who is expecting her fourth child as her husband, JD Vance, serves as vice president, was featured in a New York Times story titled, “The Politics and Power of the Pregnancy Image.” The article also highlighted White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt and podcast host Katie Miller, the wife of top White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller. Both women gave birth in recent weeks.
Times fashion critic Vanessa Friedman opened the piece by drawing attention to an Instagram Reel Vance shared for Father’s Day, noting that the second lady was “wearing a stretchy coral dress that hugs her stomach.”
“That three such prominent women in the MAGA movement were pregnant at pretty much the same time was, indubitably, a coincidence. But for an administration that has such an intuitive and strategic understanding of the power of aesthetics that an unspoken dress code in which men outfit themselves in the image of the president has developed, it has also become a telling one,” Friedman wrote Wednesday. “Together, the women have created a notably consistent, and somewhat paradigm-shifting, picture of the White House’s family and fertility platform.”
Friedman went on to argue that the three women had “showcased their growing stomachs” after announcing their pregnancies and said Vance, “as second lady, her job is also to represent and humanize the vice president. By spotlighting her pregnancy, she is doing exactly that.”
Vance responded with a tongue-in-cheek post on X.
“Now that we know the political significance of my $8.75 coral maternity dress from Old Navy, can’t wait to hear what the New York Times has to say about my elastic-waistband pants and compression socks!” Vance exclaimed on X.
She also shared a screenshot of her Old Navy receipt showing the coral maternity dress had been marked down from $49.99 to $12.49, before an additional $3.74 in promotional discounts brought the final price to $8.75.
