President Donald Trump has posted another vulgar and racist AI-modified video mocking House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, hours ahead of a government shutdown.
Federal agencies are expected to start shutting down after midnight following a failed Senate vote late Tuesday to pass a stopgap spending bill pushed by Republicans.
Most Democrats have refused to support such a bill without the GOP meeting their demands of reversing cuts to Medicaid, set out earlier this year in Trump’s “Big, Beautiful, Bill,” and an extension of Affordable Care Act subsidies.
Republicans have claimed that Democrats are trying to fund healthcare for undocumented immigrants, despite the group not being eligible for the federal healthcare programs.
On Monday, Trump posted a deepfake clip of Jeffries wearing a sombrero and handlebar mustache as he stood alongside Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.
Mariachi music played in the background as a deepfake Schumer said, “nobody likes Democrats anymore” because of “all of our woke trans bulls***,” before falsely claiming his party supports giving undocumented immigrants free healthcare because the party needs “new voters.”
Jeffries condemned the video, telling MSNBC the clip was a “malignant distraction from people who are determined to continue to rip healthcare away.”
Trump then fanned the flames with another AI-modified video of Jeffries on Truth Social Tuesday night. It starts with a real interview clip, in which Jeffries calls the first deepfake “disgusting.”
“Bigotry will get you nowhere,” Jeffries told MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell, before a sombrero and handlebar mustache were again edited onto the Democrat leader. An AI-generated mariachi band, whose members all had Trump’s face and signature blue suit and red tie, was added into the background.
CNN’s Abby Phillip mentioned the new clip in an interview with Jeffries Tuesday night and asked if he believes Trump is someone who cares to negotiate a spending plan “in good faith.”
“He’s an unserious individual. The Republicans are unserious at this point. They have no interest in having a good-faith conversation. And all of the erratic, unhinged behavior that we’ve seen…should suggest to the American people who is actually trying to drive us toward a government shutdown,” Jeffries said.
The Independent has reached out to the White House for comment.
