Vice President JD Vance trolled users of BlueSky on Wednesday, joining the social platform to take part in “common sense political discussion” of the Supreme Court’s ruling upholding state bans on gender mutilation surgeries.
Vance created an account on BlueSky, reputedly a platform for leftists and defectors of Elon Musk’s X, and posted a screenshot of a piece of Justice Clarence Thomas’ concurrence in United States v. Skrmetti shortly before the vice president was apparently suspended from the site. Vance’s account was then reactivated a short time later.
In the concurrence, Thomas raised objections to “deferring to the authority of the expert class.”
“First, so-called experts have no license to countermand the ‘wisdom, fairness, or logic of legislative choices,’” Thomas wrote. “Second, contrary to the representations of the United States and the private plaintiffs, there is no medical consensus on how best to treat gender dysphoria in children.”
“Third, notwithstanding the alleged experts’ view that young children can provide informed consent to irreversible sex-transition treatments, whether such consent is possible is a question of medical ethics that States must decide for themselves,” he continued. “Fourth, there are particularly good reasons to question the expert class here, as recent revelations suggest that leading voices in this area have relied on questionable evidence, and have allowed ideology to influence their medical guidance.”
Vance posted the snippet with an encouraging, if cheeky, message inviting “discussion and analysis” of Thomas’ argument.
“Hello Bluesky, I’ve been told this app has become the place to go to for common sense political discussion and analysis. So I’m thrilled to be here to engage with all of you,” Vance said before laying out “illuminating” points from Thomas’ concurrence.
“[Thomas] argues that many of our so-called ‘experts’ have used bad arguments and substandard science to push experimental therapies on our youth,” Vance said. “I might add that many of those scientists are receiving substantial resources from big pharma to push these medicines on kids. What do you think?”
Just set up my page on @bluesky, hope to see you guys there! pic.twitter.com/5cgjyMF8su
— JD Vance (@JDVance) June 18, 2025
Progressives on BlueSky pounced on Vance’s post. Gun control activist Fred Guttenberg called Vance an “anti-Democracy hack” and said of the vice president’s post that BlueSky “does not need to be infested with your deranged thoughts.”
Zach Kopplin, an activist and investigator with the Government Accountability Project, responded to Vance’s post: “Time to cyber bully JD Vance off this app.”
In United States v. Skrmetti, the Supreme Court upheld a state ban on transgender drugs and surgeries in Tennessee. The court ruled that the ban does not violate the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause.
“In today’s historic Supreme Court win, the common sense of Tennessee voters prevailed over judicial activism,” said Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti. “A bipartisan supermajority of Tennessee’s elected representatives carefully considered the evidence and voted to protect kids from irreversible decisions they cannot yet fully understand.”
