Associated Incidents
President Donald Trump on Monday posted a profane, apparently AI-modified video of Democratic House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, mocking the White House's main negotiating partners as the government heads towards a looming shutdown.
In the video, the digitally altered Schumer says, "nobody likes Democrats anymore" because of "all of our woke trans bulls***," before erroneously claiming Democrats support giving undocumented immigrants healthcare because the party needs "new voters."
In Trump's deepfake clip, a silent Jeffries stands alongside the senator wearing a sombrero and handlebar mustache.
The video appears to be a reference to the misleading GOP claim that Democrats are threatening to shut down the government unless an agreement can be reached to fund healthcare for undocumented people.
Illegal immigrants are not able to access most federally backed healthcare. Democrats are instead pushing to keep a set of expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies, which are not available to undocumented people, as well as other health funding that can go to "lawfully present" immigrants.
Trump posted digitally altered video of Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer on Truth Social on Monday night, after Democrats and Republicans failed to reach an agreement to stop a government shutdown (Donald Trump / Truth Social)
Jeffries and his fellow Democrats condemned the White House video, with the House leader calling the clip a "malignant distraction from people who are determined to continue to rip healthcare away" in an interview with MSNBC on Monday night.
"It's a disgusting video and we're gonna continue to make clear bigotry will get you nowhere," Jeffries said. "We are fighting to protect the healthcare of the American people in the face of an unprecedented Republican assault."
On X, meanwhile, Jeffries posted a genuine photo of Trump and his former friend the late sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein, with the caption, "This is real."
Rep. Ro Khanna of California joined his Democratic colleague, telling CNN the video was "abnormal" and not befitting the seriousness of the political moment at hand.
"You don't mock someone and put a video out about how they look," he said. "You don't ever mock people's ethnicity. How do you negotiate with that? And how have we made this normal?"
Khanna also pointed to the Trump administration's repeated attempts not to spend already approved congressional money as another factor confounding normal negotiations around the shutdown.
Sen. Roger Marshall, Republican of Kansas, defended the president's video, saying the comments in the clip were "said in jest" and meant to toy with the press "like a little boy" taunting a dog with a flashlight.
"I think it's the president making fun of a couple of people who didn't bring a serious offer to the White House," Marshall told CNN.
*The Independent *has contacted the White House for comment.
Despite a meeting on Monday between Vice President JD Vance, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, Jeffries and Schumer, the parties appear no closer to an agreement to avert the shutdown, which is slated to begin late Tuesday.