House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries expressed anger on Tuesday in response to President Donald Trump posting a meme video depicting the New York lawmaker in a Mexican sombrero.
Trump met with the four top leaders of Congress on Monday — House Speaker Mike Johnson, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, Jeffries, and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer — in hopes of working out a deal to keep the federal government open.
Schumer told reporters after the leaders’ meeting with Trump, “We have very large differences on health care and their ability to undo whatever budget we agree to through rescissions.”
SCHUMER: “We have very large differences on health care…”
Yes, Democrats want taxpayers to fund free health care for illegals and Republicans do not. pic.twitter.com/ZkA9HaJEBX
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) September 29, 2025
In response to Democrats’ intransigence, Trump posted an AI-generated video on Truth Social depicting Jeffries wearing a Mexican sombrero and Schumer talking about the Democrats’ electoral troubles.
“So we need new voters, and if we give all these illegal aliens free health care, we might be able to get them on our side so they can vote for us.”
“They can’t even speak English, so they won’t realize we’re just a bunch of woke pieces of s***, you know, at least for a while until they learn English, and they realize they hate us too.”
President Trump just posted this!!!???????????? https://t.co/SfrlHUfMoD
— Commentary Donald J. Trump Posts From Truth Social (@TrumpDailyPosts) September 30, 2025
Jeffries said regarding the post, “Mr. President, the next time you have something to say about me, don’t cop out and do a racist and fake AI video. When I’m back in the Oval Office, say it to my face!”
Hakeem Jeffries is irate about a meme video featuring him wearing a sombrero:
“Mr. President, the next time you have something to say about me…Say it to my face!” pic.twitter.com/T3vud9tZtp
— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) September 30, 2025
On CNBC Tuesday, Johnson said the main difference between Republicans and Democrats is that they “want to restore taxpayer-funded benefits, American taxpayer-funded benefits, to illegal aliens.”
“American taxpayers are not supposed to fund people who break the law coming into the country illegally,” he added. “They’re also demanding that as a condition of their votes.”
“They want to give the Corporation for Public Broadcasting $500 million, half a billion dollars, to prop up these left-leaning media organizations that we defunded,” Johnson said.
It’s simple: Republicans have passed a CLEAN NONPARTISAN CR to keep the government open. Democrats rejected our CLEAN bill in favor of a blatantly PARTISAN one.
Their demands?
– Taxpayer benefits for ILLEGAL ALIENS
– $50B CUT from rural hospitals
– $500M for NPR and PBSFor… pic.twitter.com/jaztcQ5qfH
— Speaker Mike Johnson (@SpeakerJohnson) September 30, 2025
Axios political correspondent Alex Thompson noted in a Tuesday X post that, based on polling, Democrats are in a tough spot when it comes to voting to shut down the government.
Overall, 65 percent oppose the Democrats taking that course of action, and that includes 43 percent of Democrats and 59 percent of independents.
Tough poll for Democrats on a shutdown.https://t.co/R6HpXz6oXl pic.twitter.com/3Hz1Muxlad
— Alex Thompson (@AlexThomp) September 30, 2025
Was Trump’s sombrero post a little crass? Probably. But it appears the message is definitely getting out to people that blame for a shutdown falls squarely on Democrats, who are going to the mattresses to keep the American taxpayer on the hook for illegal aliens’ healthcare costs.
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