WATCH: JD Vance fumbles the Championship Trophy lift during Ohio State’s White House visit

Come on, JD Vance. It’s honestly pretty hard to screw up a White House championship visit. The blueprint has been the same for decades—shake hands, smile for the cameras, say something vaguely inspirational, and most importantly, don’t touch the damn trophy if you don’t know how it works.

Apparently, JD Vance missed that last part.

Ohio State football rolled up to the White House on Monday to celebrate their College Football Playoff title, and Vice President Vance—an Ohio native, a Buckeyes alum, and ostensibly someone who should’ve been basking in the moment—managed to botch it in record time by nearly sending the trophy base crashing to the ground.

JD Vance fumbles the Championship Trophy lift during Ohio State’s White House visit

Ooops! Watch as Vice President JD Vance appears to drop the National Championship trophy following the celebration at the White House with OSU. Watch the full celebration here: https://t.co/gRmgpXcZIo pic.twitter.com/h4NhHRhKCk

— ABC News 4 (@ABCNews4) April 14, 2025

Now, let’s be fair for a second. If you’re not a diehard college football guy (and this moment kind of suggests JD might not be), it does look like the trophy and its base are one solid unit.

They’re not. The top comes off. Everyone in the sport knows that. Players lift just the golden upper part while the base chills below. You’d think an Ohio State grad would have seen this play out a few times on TV.

But instead of letting one of the players do the honors—or, you know, just leaving it alone—Vance went full “I got this” mode and tilted the thing like he was trying to check for a price tag. Cue the awkward pause, the fumble, and thankfully, the save.

Shoutout to TreVeyon Henderson for stepping in like a five-star safety to keep the CFP trophy from suffering the same fate as Alabama’s infamous shattered BCS crystal ball. If not for him, we’d be talking about the VP of the United States fumbling the biggest prize in college football in front of the entire team that won it—at the White House.

That’s legacy material, folks.

Look, JD Vance didn’t break anything. But the fact he nearly dropped a trophy in front of the entire country—and his own alma mater—is just chef’s kiss political comedy. You can write legislation all you want, but you drop the hardware on national TV and that’s what you’ll be remembered for. This is why you let the athletes do the lifting.

If JD Vance wanted to prove he’s “one of the boys,” he sure did—he’s the guy on the intramural team who shows up late, demands to play QB, and throws a pick on the first play.

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