President Donald Trump posted a second artificial intelligence-generated video mocking House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York late Tuesday night, September 30, 2025, just hours before the federal government shut down at midnight. The move escalated tensions with congressional Democrats over funding negotiations that had already collapsed.
The video, shared on Trump’s Truth Social platform on Tuesday evening, showed Jeffries calling the president’s previous AI post “disgusting” during an interview on MSNBC. The footage was then altered to include an AI-generated mariachi band with Trump’s face superimposed on each musician. A sombrero and mustache were digitally added to Jeffries, who is Black, as mariachi music played in the background.
Trump’s second video followed an initial AI-manipulated post from Monday night that drew widespread criticism. The video depicted Jeffries wearing a sombrero and mustache, with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York speaking in a fake voice, and was posted just hours after the two Democratic leaders met with Trump at the White House.
In the Monday video, the fake Schumer voice said, “Look, guys, there’s no way to sugarcoat it. Nobody likes Democrats anymore.” The manipulated audio also stated Democrats had no voters left because of woke policies and that not even Black people wanted to vote for them anymore.
Jeffries responded to the first video on social media, writing that “bigotry will get you nowhere. Schumer posted that if Trump thought the shutdown was a joke, it proved he couldn’t negotiate and could only throw tantrums.
House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana was recorded on Tuesday criticizing Trump’s AI video during a confrontation with Pennsylvania Rep. Madeleine Dean. When Dean asked Johnson about the video, the speaker responded, “It wasn’t my style.”
Dean replied that the video was disgraceful and racist, and that Johnson should call it out. As Johnson walked back to his office, he told the Dean that he was working on it and that, personally, it wasn’t his style.
Dean later told reporters that Johnson asked her if the video was really racist. She responded by asking if putting a sombrero on a Black man who leads the House wasn’t racist.
Johnson appeared to reverse course Tuesday night when interviewed by CNN, stating the video was meant as a joke and insisting the real fight was about keeping the government open for the American people, not about social media posts.
The president’s social media activity came as negotiations over government funding reached an impasse. Both Republican and Democratic proposals to extend federal funding failed in the Senate Tuesday evening, sending the government into shutdown at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday, October 1.
During Tuesday’s Truth Social posts, Trump also shared photos from Monday’s meeting in the Oval Office with Democratic leaders. The images showed Trump pointing his finger at Jeffries from behind the Resolute desk. The photos also featured “Trump 2028” campaign hats that Trump reportedly tried to gift the Democratic leaders, who refused them. Jeffries turned to Vice President JD Vance to ask what he thought of the gesture, and Vance reportedly replied “No comment,” prompting laughter from the room.
The funding standoff centered on competing demands from both parties. Republicans sought to pass a continuing resolution that would fund the government through mid-November at current levels. Democrats insisted any funding measure include an extension of Affordable Care Act tax credits set to expire at year’s end and a rollback of some Medicaid cuts.
Jeffries emphasized the stakes for healthcare during a press conference, stating that “more than 20 million Americans” were on the brink of experiencing dramatically increased premiums, co-pays, and deductibles because of the Republican refusal to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits, which benefit working-class Americans.
The enhanced premium tax credit helps 22 million Americans lower their health insurance costs when purchasing policies through the Affordable Care Act marketplaces. The credit has been in effect since 2021 and expires at the end of 2025. Since its implementation, enrollment in ACA marketplace health insurance plans has nearly doubled.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota accused Democrats of changing their position because Trump was now in the White House. He insisted there wasn’t anything to negotiate and called it a routine funding resolution to keep the government open.
Although Republicans hold majorities in both the House and Senate, most legislation in the Senate requires 60 votes to advance. With 53 Republicans, Democratic support is necessary to pass funding measures.
The White House meeting on Monday was the first time congressional leadership and the president met to discuss the funding standoff after Trump canceled a planned meeting the previous week. Vice President Vance said after Monday’s meeting that he thought they were headed to a shutdown. Schumer said there were very large differences between the two sides.
The Congressional Budget Office estimated about 750,000 federal employees could be furloughed during the shutdown, though they would receive back pay at the end. Essential workers such as law enforcement officers, military personnel, and air traffic controllers remain on the job but go without pay.
Trump warned he could use the shutdown to take actions that are bad for Democrats and irreversible by them, like cutting vast numbers of people out. Vice President Vance told reporters at a White House press briefing that “We are going to have to lay some people off if the shutdown continues.”
Federal employees across the government received messages Wednesday morning blaming Congressional Democrats for the shutdown. Small Business Administration employees received suggested language for out-of-office automatic replies stating they were out of office because Senate Democrats voted to block a clean federal funding bill, leading to a government shutdown.
A PBS News/NPR/Marist poll conducted September 22 through September 26 found Americans divided on blame, with 38 percent saying Republicans would be most at fault, 27 percent blaming Democrats, and 31 percent believing both parties were equally responsible. The poll surveyed 1,477 U.S. adults with a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points.
The last government funding lapse, which stretched from December 2018 to January 2019, resulted in a “permanent loss of about $3 billion,” according to the Congressional Budget Office.