A vulgar AI-generated video of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, posted Monday by President Donald Trump, is drawing sharp condemnation from Democratic leaders as the federal government nears a shutdown.
The 35-second deepfake, shared on Trump’s social media platform Truth Social, uses footage of Schumer and Jeffries speaking to reporters after a failed White House meeting with Trump and Republican leaders over a spending deal. But the audio was manipulated and cartoonish racist images were added, turning the press conference into a crude caricature.
What the Fake Video Said
The altered video shows Jeffries in a sombrero and mustache while Schumer launches into a digitally fabricated rant:
“Look guys, there’s no way to sugarcoat it, nobody likes Democrats anymore. We have no votes left because of all of our woke, trans bulls***. Not even Black people want to vote for us anymore, even Latinos hate us, 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.”
The video circulated quickly online, with critics calling it racist, vulgar, and unfit for a sitting president.
What the Meeting Was About
The video was posted just hours after Trump met with Schumer, Jeffries, Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota and House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana. The talks, meant to resolve a looming government funding crisis, collapsed without agreement.
The federal budget expires at midnight Tuesday, threatening to furlough an estimated 750,000 federal workers, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Republicans have pushed for a “clean” short-term funding bill with no policy add-ons.
Democrats, however, insist they will not back down unless health care protections are restored. They want to reverse Medicaid cuts passed in the GOP’s sweeping tax-and-spending bill earlier this year and extend Affordable Care Act premium tax credits that are set to expire in 2025.
“We won’t vote for anything that doesn’t restore the cuts to Medicaid and doesn’t protect people that will be paying higher premiums,” said Rep. Adriano Espaillat, chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. “We won’t mess around with Americans’ health care — people that are sick deserve a first-quality system providing assistance to them in one of the most serious periods of their lives.”
Reaction to Trump’s Post
Members of multiple Democratic caucuses spoke out Tuesday against the president’s decision to post the manipulated video.
Espaillat called it “insulting” and “out of touch with the health care challenges of the American people,” adding: “With your health care on the line, all he could do is put out this deepfake racist meme — not funny at all.”
Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández, chair of the Democratic Women’s Caucus, compared Trump’s move to “a little 6-year-old having a temper tantrum.”
Congressional Black Caucus Chair Yvette Clarke said, “The juvenile behavior coming out of the White House should not be dignified by any American.” She pledged her caucus would not support any partisan spending bill “that slashes health care, guts federal jobs and raises costs, all while targeting the very communities that keep this country running.”
Schumer himself fired back on social media: “If you think your shutdown is a joke, it just proves what we all know: You can’t negotiate. You can only throw tantrums.”
Jeffries added, “Bigotry will get you nowhere. We are NOT backing down.”
Stakes of the Shutdown
The bitter exchange underscores how far apart the two parties remain. Trump and Republicans insist on a quick fix to keep the government funded, while Democrats demand protections for millions of Americans’ health care. With just hours before funding runs out, the fight over a racist fake video has only deepened the standoff.