US Vice-President JD Vance has been left red-faced after a football trophy fell apart as he tried to hoist it in front of a big crowd.

The awkward moment came near the end of Monday’s visit to the White House by the Ohio State football team to celebrate its victory in the 2025 College Football Playoff National Championship.

The team, known as the Buckeyes, beat the Notre Dame Fighting Irish on January 20, only hours after President Donald Trump was inaugurated in Washington DC.

“Turns out Jan 20 was a big day for all of us. It’s true. That was a big day. I love that day. I’ll never forget that day,” Trump said.

Buckeye coach Ryan Day and Vance also gave their own speeches on the famous South Lawn. Vance and Trump were then presented with custom helmets and jerseys.

Then, Vance – a graduate of Ohio State University – tried to lift the metre-high trophy as the US Marine Band played We Are the Champions.

He apparently didn’t count on the 15-kilogram trophy – described as an “ascending virtual football” made of two gold brackets and a steel core base – being designed to separate.

The base broke off as Vance tried to keep hold of it, with the aid of Ohio State star TreVeyon Henderson. He eventually dropped the base, while a teammate helped catch the main part of the trophy before it could fall to the ground.

Nearby players winced while there were audible gasps from the assembled crowd.

Social media users were quick to react to the Vance gaff, with one declaring the incident “a perfect metaphor for the Trump administration”.

“Sometimes the metaphor is a bit too on-the-nose,” said another.

A third asked: “Can JD Vance be a bigger loser?”

As pictures and videos of Vance’s fumble rocketed across the internet, he took to self-deprecation: “I didn’t want anyone after Ohio State to get the trophy so I decided to break it,” he wrote on X.