Racist AI-generated videos set to mariachi music were played on repeat for hours in the White House in a doom-loop attempt to troll Democrats.
The two doctored clips, first posted by President Donald Trump on Truth Social, were played in briefing rooms as the government shut down.
The videos were played on monitors around the James S. Brady press room on a loop, as Vice President JD Vance shrugged it off as “funny.”
The clips slapped a mustache and big Mexican hat onto House Minority Leader Jeffries, and another used fabricated audio to make it sound like Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer dropped a slur about Democrats.
“The president is joking, and we’re having a good time,” the vice president Vance told reporters, promising “the sombrero memes will stop” if Democrats “reopen the government.”
White House press secretary Abigail Jackson told The Washington Post, “The sombreros will continue until the Democrats reopen the government!”
Jeffries, who is black and whose mother traces her roots to Cape Verde in Africa, has called the video “racist and fake,” but Vance pushed back.
“I honestly don’t even know what that means… Is he a Mexican American that is offended by having a sombrero meme?”
The clips—both set to mariachi music—were deployed in the briefing room to troll Dems, who the administration has falsely claimed are demanding health benefits for undocumented immigrants in funding talks.
Undocumented immigrants are ineligible for ACA subsidies, and Democrats say they want to extend subsidies for Americans and restore benefits for lawfully present immigrants stripped by the GOP’s July law.
The standoff has seen the first federal government shutdown since late 2018—in Trump’s first term.
It wasn’t the only attempt at trolling that took place in the White House on Wednesday.
Trump’s press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, left a voice message telling callers to its comment line that “Democrats and Congress have shut down the federal government because they care more about funding healthcare for illegal immigrants than they care about serving you, the American people.
“Until Democrats vote for the clean Republican backed continuing resolution to reopen the government, the White House is unable to answer your call or respond to your questions.
“We look forward to hearing from you again very soon. And in the meantime, please know President Trump will never stop fighting for you.”
Trump has turned the White House into a stage for petty set-pieces throughout his second term.
In September, the West Wing colonnade’s new “presidential walk of fame” featured gold frames and a black-and-white image of Joe Biden’s autopen where the ex-president’s portrait should be. “Childish. Petty. Tacky. Predictable,” former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance said at the time.
In August, it emerged that Trump had stashed Barack Obama’s official portrait—by Robert McCurdy—out of public view at the top of a restricted stairwell, a break with tradition that ensures thousands of visitors won’t see it on tours.
And this is the same president who spent July taking revenge for a failed bid to rename the Persian Gulf by slapping a framed, Sharpie-signed “Gulf of America” proclamation on a White House wall.
Whether or not it makes a difference to the electorate, it seems unlikely that the trolling will stop. As Vance put it from the podium: “You can negotiate in good faith while also poking a little bit of fun.”
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.
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