Trump’s official portrait claims to ‘go hard’. Vance just looks stunned he pulled this off | Arwa Mahdawi

It’s possible that you have seen far more of Donald Trump’s face than you’d like in recent months. But if you haven’t, then I’ve got great news: the president-elect’s official portrait has now been released. This morning, Trump’s transition team shared official portraits of the incoming president and his vice president-elect, JD Vance, before their inauguration next week. “Official Portraits Released – And They Go Hard ????” an accompanying statement from the Trump team proclaimed.

So just how hard do they go? You can rate them for yourself, but Trump’s somewhat untraditional pose is certainly trying to project “tough guy”. He’s got one eye squinted menacingly and a grim, defiant look on his face. The pose is strikingly similar to his famous mugshot from 2023.

Side by side, the two pictures tell a remarkable comeback story. For any other politician, that booking photo, taken after Trump and 18 co-defendants were charged in an alleged scheme to undermine the results of the 2020 election, would have been a career-ender.

But Trump, with his unmatched brazenness and knack for self-mythologizing, turned the mugshot of inmate No P01135809 into a badge of honour and a marketing opportunity – slapping the mugshot on an array of merchandise. That picture also became a symbol of defiance to his supporters. “This is the photo that will win the 2024 Presidential election,” Marjorie Taylor Greene tweeted at the time.

Greene wasn’t entirely wrong, but if any photo won the 2024 election it was probably the picture of a bloodied Trump standing up with a closed fist and the American flag in the background after an assassination attempt last July. “Fight, fight, fight,” Trump was mouthing in the photo. He was clearly thrilled with that picture and used it as the cover of his latest book, Save America. His official portrait channels that same energy: here’s a man you can’t get rid of easily, it seems to say. You can’t imprison him; you can’t assassinate him. You knock him down and he’ll get right back up again.

While Trump’s official portrait might be captioned something like “Fight, fight, fight”, Vance’s portrait caption would be more along the lines of “Woohoo! I can’t believe I managed to pull this off!”

Unlike Trump, Vance isn’t putting on a menacing tough guy look. He’s doing a more traditional cross-armed, smile-to-the-camera pose, but he also looks unbelievably smug. It looks like he wants to turn to the photographer and say: “Can you believe this? Can you believe the guy who wrote Hillbilly Elegy climbed to such meteoric political heights so quickly?”

The smugness isn’t the only thing that stands out from Vance’s portrait. Also notable is how undefined his eyes look: this is clearly not a photograph of a man wearing eyeliner. It is possible the photographer was specifically briefed on making sure that the incoming vice-president didn’t look at all like he might be wearing eye makeup because, ever since Vance strutted into the political spotlight, there has been heated debate about the issue. Even the disgraced congressman George Santos has weighed in on the guyliner question.

“Vance does NOT use eyeliner,” the former congressman wrote on X last October. “I’ve met him in person before he was a senator and I can confirm he has long eyelashes and they cast a shadow on his waterline when is studios full of lights…Grow up people!”

Santos, I should note, may not be the most reliable source. Last August, he pleaded guilty to wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. He was due to be sentenced in February but a judge ruled that it could be delayed until April so that Santos could make new episodes of his podcast, Pants on Fire with George Santos – thereby apparently making money he owes the government.

Usha Vance, the incoming vice-president’s wife, has also commented on the debate, however, and also said the eyeliner rumours were greatly exaggerated. “[His eyes] are all natural,” Usha Vance wrote in a statement to Puck last year. “I’ve always been jealous of those lashes.”

Also of note is Vance’s beard: he will be the first vice-president with facial hair in nearly a century. Schuyler Colfax, vice-president from 1869-1873, with President Ulysses S Grant, had a beard and Charles A Fairbanks, who served with the Theodore Roosevelt administration from 1905 to 1909, had a goatee. Charles Curtis, the VP to President Herbert Hoover from 1929 to 1933, had a moustache.

Powerful people tend to conform to a similar appearance and politicians in both the UK and US have gravitated towards a clean-shaven look for a long time now. The last president with a full beard was Benjamin Harrison – although William Howard Taft, who completed his term in 1913, did have a moustache, and Harry Truman briefly tried out facial hair. Meanwhile, the last prime minister of the UK with facial hair was the third Marquess of Salisbury, who resigned in 1902. It seems that Vance is bringing facial hair back to politics.

Of course, the most notable thing about Vance’s portrait might be how young he is. With an average age of 58.9 years, the 119th Congress is the third-oldest since 1789, according to a recent analysis.

At just 40, Vance will be one of the youngest vice-presidents ever while Trump is the oldest president-elect. It’s no wonder Vance looks so smug in his portrait. He knows that, if he plays things right, he’s got plenty more official portraits ahead of him.