US Vice-President JD Vance’s summer getaway to the United Kingdom was meant to be a private family affair, a chance to unwind in the English and Scottish countryside. Instead, the trip, which began on August 8, 2025, unfolded as a headline-grabbing spectacle marked by public protests, viral memes, and a controversy over the costs and optics of his stay. The saga, which spanned from the rolling hills of the Cotswolds to the grand estates of Scotland, offered a revealing look at the intersection of politics, celebrity, and public opinion in an era when privacy for public figures seems all but impossible.
According to The Daily Beast, Vance’s itinerary included estate-hopping through England and Scotland with his family, but it quickly became clear that the vice president would not be able to escape the scrutiny that comes with his office. In the Cotswolds, angry protesters greeted him with shouts of “go home,” while a van plastered with a blown-up image of the infamous “bald baby” meme—an unflattering viral image of Vance that made the rounds earlier in the year—cruised the leafy lanes near his rented estate. The trolling was orchestrated by the British activist group Everyone Hates Elon, which has previously targeted high-profile figures like Donald Trump and Elon Musk. The group boasted on Instagram, “NEVER lose your faith in people because HUNDREDS just paid to welcome JD Vance to the UK with this MASSIVE meme of him looking like a complete and utter pillock. Right where he’s on holidays.”
The backlash was not limited to memes and street protests. At The Bull, a renowned 16th-century pub in Charlbury, Oxfordshire, Vance’s reservation triggered what The Daily Beast described as a staff mutiny: employees reportedly refused to work if management allowed the vice president to dine there. The irony was not lost on observers, given that just weeks earlier, Vice-President Kamala Harris had enjoyed a meal at the same establishment without incident, celebrating the July wedding of Steve Jobs’ daughter Eve to British Olympic equestrian Harry Charles.
Vance’s stay in the English countryside was nothing short of extravagant. The vice president and his family rented a country estate in Dean, Gloucestershire, at a reported cost of $11,000 per week. The arrival of his 20-car motorcade effectively put the village into what locals described as a “lockdown,” prompting even more protests and renewed calls for the American politician to “go home,” according to GlouchesterLive. One BBC Scotland reader on X (formerly Twitter) called the display “ridiculously OTT,” while another wondered aloud, “Is the American taxpayer on the hook for this?”
On August 13, 2025, as Vance’s vacation continued, former President Donald Trump released a report claiming that free speech and human rights in the UK had “worsened” over the past year. The timing was more than a coincidence: earlier that year, Vance had criticized the UK’s approach to freedom of speech at the Munich Security Conference, a move that was met with silence in the room and later denounced by European leaders.
The second leg of Vance’s trip took him north to Scotland, where, according to BBC, he and his family settled into the sprawling 2,000-acre Carnell Estates in Hurlford, just outside Kilmarnock in East Ayrshire. The estate, which features a 14th-century tower and a ten-bedroom mansion, provided a suitably grand backdrop for the vice president’s Scottish sojourn. Yet, the welcome was far from warm. Upon his arrival on August 13, a group of pro-Palestinian protesters gathered at the estate’s gates, only to be dispersed later by Police Scotland, who had mounted a significant security operation in anticipation of Vance’s visit. This included airspace restrictions over the estate until August 17, underscoring the scale of the preparations.
During his time in Scotland, Vance indulged in a round of golf at President Donald Trump’s Turnberry resort—a nod to the former president’s own recent visit to Scotland, where he too played at Turnberry and his course at Menie in Aberdeenshire. Vance, who often refers to himself as a “Scots-Irish hillbilly” and claims Scottish ancestry from Galloway (a claim that has been questioned in the past), appeared eager to embrace his roots, at least in spirit.
The vice president’s travels were not without diplomatic overtones. While in the Cotswolds, Vance met with UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy, though the details of their conversation remain undisclosed. The timing of Vance’s return to the United States proved significant as well: on August 17, 2025, a motorcade whisked the family to Prestwick Airport, where a small crowd of plane spotters gathered to watch Air Force Two take off just before 1 p.m. His departure coincided with a major summit at the White House, where UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, French President Emmanuel Macron, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Finnish President Alexander Stubb, and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni were all scheduled to meet with Donald Trump. The summit followed high-stakes talks between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska, which failed to secure a deal on ending the war in Ukraine.
The spectacle of Vance’s holiday—complete with luxury estates, a heavy security presence, and public displays of disapproval—sparked vigorous debate on both sides of the Atlantic. Critics questioned the appropriateness and cost of such a lavish vacation at a time of global uncertainty and domestic challenges. Social media users drew pointed comparisons to past controversies, with one commentator recalling, “Remember when Republicans were pissed about Kamala wearing $800 earrings.” Others took aim at the symbolism of Vance’s visit, with the viral “bald baby” meme serving as a kind of shorthand for the vice president’s perceived disconnect from ordinary citizens.
Supporters of Vance, meanwhile, dismissed the protests and trolling as little more than political theater, arguing that public figures should be entitled to private family time, even if their presence attracts attention. Some noted that the vice president’s embrace of his (contested) Scottish heritage was a harmless gesture, while others saw the controversy as an inevitable byproduct of the polarized political climate in both the US and the UK.
For all the drama, Vance’s holiday ultimately underscored a simple truth: in the age of social media and global celebrity, even the most carefully planned getaway can become a public spectacle. As Vance’s Air Force Two lifted off from Prestwick, the vice president left behind a country divided in its response—some amused, some angry, and many simply curious about what, exactly, comes next.
