White House’s Childish Online Threat Over Shutdown Crisis
The Trump administration just loves its offensive AI video.
The White House threatened to supersize Donald Trump’s racist AI video featuring House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries as it makes fun of the government shutdown.
Trump posted his first AI-generated video featuring Jeffries wearing a sombrero and sporting a mustache on his Truth Social account on Monday. The clip also doctored Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer‘s voice to make him say Democrats had lost all their voters due to “woke trans bulls--t.”
The original video was filmed after Jeffries and Schumer met with Trump at the White House on Monday, in an unsuccessful attempt to avert a government shutdown, which began on Wednesday.

Donald Trump posts AI video of Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer on Truth Social, regarding what he views as a shutdown caused by the duo.
Truth Social
The White House’s official X account reposted Trump’s AI video on Wednesday evening with the caption “Every day Democrats keep the government shut down, the sombrero gets 10x bigger.”
They used their new slogan, “DEMOCRAT SHUTDOWN,” even adding the trademark symbol.
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The Daily Beast has contacted the White House regarding the latest threat.
Every day Democrats keep the government shut down, the sombrero gets 10x bigger. 🪇
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) October 1, 2025
DEMOCRAT SHUTDOWN™️ pic.twitter.com/WzfsvlgTDm
Speaking to CNN hours before the shutdown on Wednesday, Jeffries said Trump’s behavior—including his online troll posts—made it hard to cut a deal on spending.
“He‘s an unserious individual,” Jeffries said.
“We just don‘t have serious negotiating partners right now,” he added. “On the other side of the aisle, because they‘re engaging in this erratic behavior, posting racist, fake AI videos. It speaks for itself in terms of the American people concluding who’s serious and who’s deadly unserious.”
The White House X account was not the only government body blaming the shutdown on Democrats online.
The websites of the Department of Justice, the Department of Agriculture, and the Department of Housing and Development all featured messages warning users they were not being updated due to the “radical left” Democrat shutdown.
Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett told The Source With Kaitlan Collins on Wednesday she believed the online messaging on official websites could breach the Hatch Act.

The Housing and Urban Development website blames the shutdown on the "Radical Left" in Congress.
syreengrab
The act, which came into law in 1939, prohibits civil service employees in the executive branch of the federal government from engaging in political activity. It is designed to protect federal employees from political coercion in the workplace. The act does not include the president or vice president.
“How can this not be a violation of the Hatch Act?” Crockett asked.
“Because we are not allowed to politic on official sites, period. Right? And that’s what they’re doing. You decided to play partisan politics on an official website, and I guess there is no limit to what they won’t do.”
“I don‘t think that they‘re being more effective,” Crockett said of the messaging. “I think that they are being more illegal in the ways that they‘re going about making sure that they can push out the information.”
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