If a government shutdown wasn’t already exceedingly likely, President Donald Trump might have made it a near certainty Monday night.
The president posted a vulgar AI-generated deepfake video to his Truth Social slamming the top Democratic leaders — Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries — just hours after he hosted the two for an Oval Office meeting.
The video depicts Schumer and Jeffries as if speaking to reporters following the meeting, but the fabricated audio has 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.”
That appears to be a crude reference to a shutdown talking point pushed by Speaker Mike Johnson and other GOP leaders noting that one Democratic demand is to reverse health care provisions in the recently enacted GOP megabill — including provisions aimed at excluding noncitizens from public benefits.
Jeffries is depicted in a sombrero and mariachi music plays in the background. Trump sat down with the top House Democrat for the first time ever Monday.
Jeffries appeared to reply on X: “Bigotry will get you nowhere. Cancel the Cuts. Lower the Cost. Save Healthcare. We are NOT backing down.” Schumer in his own reply 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.”
After looking over the video, one senior GOP aide granted anonymity to speak candidly said, “This might top the last shutdown.” That’s a reference to the 2018-2019 shutdown under Trump that lasted a record 35 days.
Jordain Carney and Nicholas Wu contributed to this report.
