Meet Usha Vance, the first millennial second lady
Meet Usha Vance, a millennial and the first person of color to remarry.
Vice President JD Vance shares her opinion on Usha Vance’s $8.75 Old Navy maternity dress, which has sparked a lot of discussion online and is currently trending. The vice president and his second daughter are scheduled to give birth to their fourth child, a boy, in July.
“She bought a $50 dress for $8.75,” Vance wrote in a June 25 post on X in response to his wife’s post with the receipt attached. “America: Meet the next Federal Budget Secretary!”
Usha Vance’s form-fitting coral maternity dress sparked a national discussion after New York Times Chief Fashion Critic Vanessa Friedman wrote in an article titled “The Politics and Power of Pregnancy Images” that the pregnant bellies of MAGA women, including Usha Vance, White House Press Secretary Caroline Leavitt, and Katie Miller, wife of White House Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, have garnered attention.
“In fact, since Vance, Levitt, and Miller revealed their pregnancies, they have started showing off their growing bellies in public,” Friedman wrote. “Together, women have created a strikingly consistent and somewhat paradigm-shifting picture of the White House’s family and reproductive platform.”
Friedman said Vance’s job as second lady “is also to represent and humanize the vice president,” adding, “By shining a spotlight on the pregnancy, she’s doing just that.”
Usha Vance wore this dress in a special Father’s Day episode of “Storytime with the Second Lady,” which was released on June 21, and JD Vance read a story from “Winnie the Pooh.”
Usha Vance responds to article, drops receipt
Vance fired back at the Times, saying she had no idea her $8.75 coral-colored maternity dress had such “political significance.”
“Now that I know the political significance of my $8.75 coral maternity dress from Old Navy, I can’t wait to hear what the New York Times has to say about my elastic waistband pants and compression socks!” Vance wrote in a June 24 post on X.
“In the meantime, enjoy my pregnancy fashion (or lack thereof) and some fun stories with your kids at Storytime with the Second Lady,” she added.
She followed up with another post sharing the receipt from purchasing the dress. This costume originally sold for $44.99, but was reduced to $12.49, and an additional coupon reduced the price of the dress to $8.75. This dress is no longer available on Old Navy’s website and appears to have been sold out.
“We are pleased that The Second Lady had the opportunity to read the Times’ coverage of fashion and pregnancy, which presented a fair and enlightening analysis of women in the Trump administration, motherhood and image ownership,” New York Times spokesperson Charlie Stadtlander said in an email to USA TODAY on June 25.
Usha Vance attends World Cup game
Meanwhile, Usha Vance was spotted at the Soccer World Cup match between Turkey and the United States at Los Angeles Stadium in Inglewood on Thursday, June 25, just one day after the issue broke out on social media. The Second Lady wore a blue and white dress to the match and attended the match with her son Ewan Vance.
The U.S. men’s national team lost 3-2. However, the result was academic: before the match, the USMNT had already emerged as group winners, and Turkey had already been eliminated.
Contributor: Francesca Chambers, USA TODAY
Saman Shafiq is a trending news reporter for USA TODAY. Contact her at sshafiq@usatodayco.com and follow X and Instagram @saman_shafiq7.
