Person Behind JD Vance Couch Sex Meme Comes Clear

Over the past two weeks, Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance has been derided as having sex with banks — an odd situation, even in the no-holds-barred world of presidential politics.

The person who created the bizarre meme is now clearly coming to Business Insider about how he came to the strange accusation.

On July 15, after Vance was announced as Donald Trump’s running mate, a social media user whose account on mentioned that he had sex with a “latex glove shoved between two couch cushions.”

The claim was completely made up by “Rick,” which is how Business Insider referred to the prankster to maintain his anonymity.

While there is no evidence that Vance has had any erotic encounters with upholstered furniture, Business Insider reported: “Over the past week, for every seven people who searched for ‘JD Vance’ on Google, one person searched for ‘JD Vance sofa,’ according to Google. Trends.”

Enough people believed the joke that both Candy and The Associated Press fact-checked it. (The AP’s story was later deleted, with a spokesperson telling Semafor reporter Max Tani that it “did not go through the standard telephone service editing process.”)

Rick, who has since given up the @rickrudescalves enforcement on X, told Business Insider that he had a similar upbringing to Vance but took a different path politically.

Rick thinks the meme stuck with Vance because the Ohio senator gives off a “bank fucker” vibe.

“I really enjoyed thinking about his team and all the idiots who had to deal with him, who had to deal with this,” Rick told Business Insider. “I think by the time the AP thing came out, I was talking to one of my sisters and said, ‘Oh yeah, Trump is already calling him a bank fuck.’”

But the meme’s success also raised Risk’s concern about the gullibility of the electorate, though he couched this in somewhat softer language.

“As far as media literacy and things like that, I was probably already in the mud,” he said, noting that he had not intended to spread misinformation.

Read more at Business insider.