Second Lady Fires Back After NYT Says Trump Admin’s Women Are Weaponizing Maternity Fashion

Second Lady Usha Vance delivered a rare rebuke to The New York Times over an article essentially claiming that women within President Donald Trump’s administration were using maternity fashion to weaponize pregnancy.

Vance, who is pregnant with her fourth child with husband and Vice President JD Vance, mocked the outlet’s attempt to make her wardrobe political and made it clear that her maternity fashion choices were typically born of just three things: necessity, comfort, and economy.

“Now that we know the political significance of my $8.75 coral maternity dress from Old Navy, can’t wait to hear what the New York Times has to say about my elastic-waistband pants and compression socks!” Vance posted via X. “In the meantime, enjoy my pregnancy fashion (or lack thereof) and a good story with your kids on ‘Storytime with the Second Lady.'”

Along with her caption, Vance shared a video — also featuring the vice president — of herself wearing the dress in question as he read aloud from A. A. Milne’s classic, “Winnie the Pooh.”

And here’s the receipt! pic.twitter.com/tgICmpbapQ

— Second Lady Usha Vance (@SLOTUS) June 24, 2026

For good measure, Vance followed up with a screenshot of her receipt showing that she had, in fact, purchased the dress from Old Navy. It also showed that the coral-colored “Asymmetrical Shoulder Maxi Dress,” originally $49.99, had been marked down to $12.99 and she had saved an additional $3.74— making her final total $8.75.

And while that choice may have been one of convenience and economy, Vance said in March that being pregnant as the Second Lady of the United States meant that she necessarily had to change her style, mainly because her position dictated a number of events that she would have to attend — and many of those would not be held in places where leggings and sweatpants were considered appropriate.

“I have to dress up a lot more. I enjoyed my last pregnancy — there were a lot of sweatpants. I was working from home and sometimes put a blazer on over what was under,” she told NBC at the time.

The article to which Vance was responding was published on Wednesday and was titled, “The Politics and Power of the Pregnancy Image.” If that did not paint a clear enough picture of the tone, the sub-headline removed all doubt: “Usha Vance, along with Katie Miller and Karoline Leavitt, shows how much is said by an expectant silhouette, without anyone saying a word.”

The article proceeded to accuse women within the Trump administration of flaunting their pregnancies to make a political point: this is what women are supposed to do — and how they are supposed to look.

Together, the women have created a notably consistent, and somewhat paradigm-shifting, picture of the White House’s family and fertility platform.

If the bare-chested, muscled mixed martial arts fighters of the U.F.C. match that President Trump hosted on Flag Day were the poster guys for MAGA’s image of masculinity, then the pregnant women of Trump world are one half of their feminine counterparts. Along with the sheath-clad, lip-filled, pageant-haired Mar-a-Lago set, they offer an image of idealized womanhood that gives literal shape to the pronatalist movement.

Jill Filipovic, the host of the “Week in Women” podcast, suggested that even though it’s highly unlikely that the pregnancies were coordinated, the presentation appeared to be: “It almost feels like a memo went out. They have quite intentionally opted to present themselves as, ‘I am really pregnant, and this is what women were chosen to do,’ and they are happy to say that both with their looks and their mouths.”

Vance, quite clearly, said otherwise.

Miller, whose fourth child with longtime Trump adviser Stephen Miller was born just days before Father’s Day, weighed in as well — and said that maternity fashion had been made more difficult as American birth rates had fallen.

“Over the last few years, many clothing brands have largely stopped producing maternity clothes that most women actually want to wear. @SLOTUS has done a phenomenal job curating affordable, fashionable options that make pregnancy fashion accessible. The root cause is sadly straightforward: with fewer women having babies, it’s likely become unprofitable for brands to invest in dedicated maternity lines,” she said.