JD & Usha Vance's Painful Dance Video Is Like Watching Their Divorce In Slow Motion

There have been multiple signs that JD Vance and Usha Vance's marriage is struggling, and one of them came during what should have been a celebratory moment. The second couple shared a slow dance at Donald Trump's inauguration ball in January 2025. Footage showed the president dancing with Melania Trump, then briefly stopping to welcome the Vances on stage to join in on the action. After greeting POTUS, JD and Usha awkwardly latched onto each other like two junior high students terrified by the interaction. They even employed the middle school dance rule of keeping a ruler's-length distance between one another. Meanwhile, Donald was nestled up to Melania nearby.

Nicki Swift asked a body language expert to break down the painful video, and she spotted tension between JD and his wife. "JD appears to be a bit emotionally removed from Usha," Nicole Moore, Celebrity Love Coach & Body Language Expert, exclusively told us. "The couple is dancing stiffly with a lot of space in between their bodies and chests, which may indicate a desire to keep distance between them," Moore added.

Near the end of their brief dance together, JD planted a kiss on the second lady's lips, but similar to their dance, it was devoid of any passion. "When the couple does kiss, it's a short, perfunctory kiss, almost as if they're kissing because they have to rather than because they want to," the love coach said. Looking at the footage, Moore was also able to give us her theory about where the Vances' relationship stood, and it wasn't encouraging for the couple.

Nicole Moore offered some additional insight into JD Vance and Usha Vance's awkward dance. "It's almost as if JD and Usha share friendly closeness but not romantic closeness," she told us.

This was similar to when the Vances engaged in some awkward PDA at the Vatican in May 2025 while attending a mass held by Pope Leo XIV, shortly after he was named the new pope. Dressed in black, the first couple took a moment to share a smooch, and the gesture had some people divided. "Photo opportunity, not real trying to go viral," an X user wrote. Moore gave us her body language expertise while dissecting the liplock, and she agreed with that amateur analysis: The kissing vibes were off between JD and Usha yet again. "It appears as if this particular kiss may have been for the cameras and their relationship is in a neutral zone," Moore told us in August. "This kiss gives friendly married but roommates vibes rather than passionate lovers vibes," she added.

The body language between JD and Usha has told a story on multiple occasions. A month prior to their seemingly forced kiss at the Vatican, the couple was filmed briefly stopping at an airbase in Germany as they flew back to the U.S. following a family trip to India. Usha stopped with her husband to greet officials on the tarmac, but then rushed away to the stairs to get into Air Force Two, while the vice president trailed behind. On multiple occasions, JD reached his hand out to SLOTUS, but she was too preoccupied with briskly fleeing up the steps to even bother waiting for him to catch up.