Vice President JD Vance on Wednesday brushed off President Donald Trump’s posts of vulgar AI-generated videos of top Democratic leaders as “funny,” and an example of his boss “joking and having a good time.”
After meeting with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries this week, the president posted a video depicting the two Democrats speaking to reporters with fake audio of Schumer saying Democrats “have no voters anymore, because of our woke, trans bullshit” and that “if we give all these illegal aliens health care, we might be able to get them on our side so they can vote for us.”
In that deepfake post, and another, Jeffries was depicted in a sombrero while mariachi music played in the background.
The crude memes are a reference to a Republican shutdown talking point — that Democrats are fighting to reverse health care provisions enacted in the GOP tax and domestic policy law earlier this year, including provisions aimed at excluding noncitizens from public benefits. Federal law already makes most undocumented immigrants ineligible for federal health coverage under Medicare, Medicaid and Affordable Care Act subsidies.
“I think it’s funny. The president is joking and having a good time. You can negotiate in good faith while poking fun at the absurdities of the Democrats’ positions, and poking fun at the absurdity of the Democrats themselves,” Vance said to reporters in the White House briefing room. “I will tell Hakeem Jeffries right now, I make a solemn promise to you that if you help us reopen the government, the sombrero memes will stop. And I’ve talked to the president of the United States about that.”
Jeffries has slammed the videos as “racist” and “bigoted” and said Trump needs to be “focused on doing his job.” He later posted a photo of Trump with the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Schumer, for his part, said: “If you think your shutdown is a joke, it just proves what we all know: You can’t negotiate. You can only throw tantrums.”
Vance also shrugged off Jeffries’ response, and said Americans can recognize the posts are fake.
“Is he a Mexican American that is offended by having a sombrero meme?” Vance said. “Give the country a little credit. We are all trying to do a very important job for the American people.”
