NEED TO KNOW
- Vice President JD Vance is being trolled by an activist group while on vacation in the United Kingdom
- The group, called Everyone Hates Elon, has plastered an unflattering meme image of the VP to signs, billboards and even a large van that has been driving around the Cotswolds, near where Vance and his family are staying
- “If he thinks he can come here for peaceful tea and crumpets, he’s got another thing coming,” the group said in a statement
JD Vance is receiving a not-so-warm welcome while on a family vacation in the United Kingdom.
This week, Vance, 41, and his wife, Usha, 39, traveled with their children, Ewan, 8, Vivek, 5, and Mirabel, 3, to stay at an 18th-century manor house in the Cotswolds, a posh and picturesque area in southern England.
However, a British activist group called Everyone Hates Elon — which has previously trolled President Donald Trump, Jeff Bezos, and, as its name suggests, Elon Musk — is making his stay slightly uncomfortable. The group has taken a immediately-infamous meme of the vice president with a digitally enlarged bald head and posted it on billboards and signs around the area where Vance and his family are staying.
More notably, they rented an advertising van that projects the image on both sides and the back of the van as it drives around the Cotswolds.
Everyone Hates Elon/Instagram
On Everyone Hates Elon’s Instagram page, the liberal activist group has been receiving donations to help “ruin JD Vance’s trip,” with a stated goal to show the VP that he is “NOT welcome in the U.K.”
“Such an absolute SHAME that coverage of JD’s holiday features this meme of his face as a big bald baby, rather than peacefully enjoying scones and cream in the Cotswolds,” they wrote on one post. “We couldn’t allow him to dine at expensive restaurants, while people in Palestine starve to death. We couldn’t stand by as he freely hangs out with his far right friends, while taking freedoms away of his people. Apparently you really love free speech hun @jdvance, so here you go xxx.”
The choice of the meme is no coincidence. While hundreds of Vance memes flooded the internet earlier this year, that specific image is the one that a 21-year-old Norwegian tourist said got him denied entry to the U.S. earlier this year.
Everyone Hates Elon/Instagram
Mads Mikkelsen, who is unrelated to the Danish actor, claimed that he was detained by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) at Newark Liberty International Airport on June 11. Mikkelsen said he was threatened with a $5,000 fine or five years in prison if he didn’t give officers the password to his phone. According to the traveler, once he did, they saw the Vance meme and sent him back to Norway.
On June 24, after the story went viral, CBP posted a “FACT CHECK” on their X page, writing, “Mads Mikkelsen was not denied entry for any memes or political reasons, it was for his admitted drug use.”
This came a few months after Vance made headlines with claims that Europe, and the U.K. in particular, have a free speech problem.
While sitting down with U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer in February, the VP claimed tech regulation across the pond was a threat to American businesses.
“We also know that there have been infringements on free speech that actually affect not just the British — of course what the British do in their own country is up to them — but also affect American technology companies and, by extension, American citizens,” he said.
Starmer fired back, saying the U.K. “wouldn’t want to reach across U.S. citizens, and we don’t, and that’s absolutely right.”
“But in relation to free speech in the U.K. I’m very proud of our history there,” Starmer added. “We’ve had free speech for a very, very long time in the United Kingdom and it will last for a very, very long time.”
Vance’s focus on free speech is, in part, what motivated Everyone Hates Elon to target him with that specific meme.
In a press release about their campaign, a spokesperson for the group said, “JD Vance says the UK has a free speech problem, but a tourist claims he was banned from entering the USA simply for having this silly meme on his phone.”
“We thought we’d show him what free speech looks like here by welcoming him with the image he apparently hates so much,” the statement continued. “Vance has made racist claims about our diverse country. With President Trump he has delivered huge tax cuts to billionaires. He is bankrolling the daily murders we see Israel carrying out in Gaza. If he thinks he can come here for peaceful tea and crumpets he’s got another thing coming.”
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The meme isn’t the only issue Vance is having on his family vacation.
Earlier this week, The Telegraph reported that the owner of the property Vance was renting for his stay had to send a message to her neighbors saying she was “so sorry for the circus that is there for the next few days,” adding that she hoped the Vances’ stay wouldn’t be too “disruptive” for locals.
Prior to Vance’s arrival in the rural vacation spot, the Secret Service reportedly brought disturbances to Charlbury, a village with just 3,000 residents. Preparations for his visit included the installation of checkpoints, the erection of a large antenna behind the house, and the creation of a makeshift helipad in a nearby field.
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