Vice President JD Vance brushed off the multiple deepfake AI videos that Donald Trump has posted of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries wearing a sombrero and a cartoonishly large mustache, insisting there is nothing racist about the memes and it is all in good fun.
“Oh, I think it’s funny, the president is joking and we’re having a good time,” the vice president said during Wednesday’s White House press briefing.
In recent days, the president has been sharing AI-generated videos of both Jeffries in that appropriated garb and an altered and vulgarly voiced Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to mock the two top Democrats during stalled negotiations over the latest stopgap funding bill, which has led to a government shutdown.
In one video that Trump posted to Truth Social on Monday, a digitally altered Schumer says “nobody likes Democrats anymore” because of “all of our woke trans bulls***,” all while making the false claim that Democrats are pushing to give undocumented migrants free healthcare to get new voters.
“If we give all these illegal aliens free health care, we might be able to get ‘em on our side so they can vote for us,” the AI-generated Schumer says in the clip.
The New York Times, meanwhile, has reported that Republicans’ claims that Democrats are shutting down the government to fund free healthcare for unauthorized immigrants – which has been parroted by right-wing media – is misleading and inaccurate.
The video also features Jeffries in a stereotype trope wearing a sombrero and handlebar mustache, with mariachi music playing in the background. The president would follow with a similar AI-generated meme on Tuesday, this time with a four-piece mariachi band behind Jeffries – all of whom had Trump’s face and signature suit and tie combo.
“Mr. President, the next time you have something to say about me, don’t cop out through a racist and fake AI video,” Jeffries said on Tuesday. “When I’m back in the Oval Office, say it to my face.”
With other Democrats condemning the videos as bigoted and offensive while urging GOP leaders to “call it out,” House Speaker Mike Johnson shrugged it off “as a joke” and that it isn’t the “real issue.” Johnson, in fact, was congratulated by Vance on Wednesday for posting his own video compilation of Democrats.
“I see that Mike Johnson has apparently learned from the trolling master President Donald Trump by putting that video outside of his office, just throwing the Democrats’ words right back at them,” Vance told Trump’s favorite morning talk show Fox & Friends.
Hours later, during the White House briefing, the vice president was asked about the president’s AI clips and whether the administration was “interested in good faith negotiation with these leaders.” Vance was also pressed on what kind of message Trump was sending to them, and if it was helpful to send out clips of top Democrats wearing sombreros.
“You can negotiate in good faith and also poke fun at some of the absurdities of the Democrats’ positions and at the absurdities of the democrats themselves,” Vance reacted, claiming that it was “funny” and the president was just joking around.
“I’ll say to Hakeem Jeffries right now, I make the solemn promise to you that if you help us reopen the government, the sombrero memes will stop,” the vice president continued. “And I’ve spoken to the president of the United States about that,” he added, prompting laughter in the room.”
Later in the briefing, Vance was pressed on whether he agreed with the House minority leader that the videos were “vulgar and racist,” prompting the vice president to plead ignorance.
“I know he said that, and I honestly don’t even know what that means,” Vance replied. “Like, is he a Mexican-American that is offended by having a sombrero meme?”
