Overview

• On Thursday, Trump shared a new video featuring a poncho-and-sombrero “fake Trump” mocking Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer and vowing not to give in to Democrats’ demands.
• Vice President JD Vance defended the posts at a White House briefing, calling them funny and promising the “sombrero memes will stop” if Jeffries helps reopen the government.
• The White House played the AI videos on loop in the briefing room as a deputy communications official posted that “the sombreros will continue until the government reopens.”
• Jeffries and Schumer denounced the clips as racist and unserious, and Democrats including Jeffries and California Gov. Gavin Newsom responded with their own doctored memes targeting Vance.
• The government has been shut since Oct. 1 after Congress failed to pass a stopgap bill, with Republicans claiming Democrats are seeking health-care benefits for undocumented immigrants and Democrats rejecting that characterization.