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Vance downplays Trump post of Jeffries in sombrero: ‘I think it’s funny’

Vice President JD Vance on Wednesday downplayed criticism over a fake video of Democratic lawmakers that the president posted online, saying the depiction of one party leader in a sombrero and another seeming to deliver a profanity-laced tirade was “funny.”

President Donald Trump posted the AI-generated video in a failed effort to avert a government shutdown, charging party leaders with wanting to provide undocumented immigrants with free health care. The Post featured House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), who is Black, in a sombrero and mustache with mariachi music playing in the background. The video also included fabricated vocals of Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) railing against the Democratic Party.

“The president is joking, and we’re having a good time,” Vance said, in response to questions during a rare appearance in the White House briefing room. “You can negotiate in good faith while also poking a little bit of fun at some of the absurdities of the Democrats’ positions and even, you know, poking some, some fun at the absurdity of the Democrats themselves,” Vance continued, promising that if Jeffries helps “reopen the government, the sombrero memes will stop.”

Critics and particularly Democrats have blasted the manipulated video as a highly offensive cultural stereotype. A spokesperson for Jeffries did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday, but Jeffries on Tuesday told reporters the video was “racist and fake.” In an X post, he wrote: “Bigotry will get you nowhere.”

Schumer added on X: “If you think your shutdown is a joke, it just proves what we all know: You can’t negotiate. You can only throw tantrums.”

Pressed to respond to the criticism, Vance sought to frame the meme as a good-natured jest and said Americans understood the video was fake.

“I mean, Hakeem Jeffries said it was racist, and I know that he said that. And I honestly don’t even know what that means. Like, is he a Mexican American that is offended by having a sombrero meme?” Vance said. “The American people recognize that he did not actually come to the White House wearing a sombrero and a black, curly animation mustache.”

The meeting on Monday left both parties far apart on how to fund continued operations — with funding for health care subsidies a key area of disagreement. Jeffries in an CNBC interview dismissed Trump’s accusations that Democrats are seeking to protect health care benefits to undocumented immigrants as a Republican talking point.

Democrats have said any agreement to fund operations must cover pandemic-era Affordable Care Act subsidies that were set to expire by the end of the year — a move Republicans have falsely claimed would force the government to provide full health care benefits to undocumented immigrants.

Shortly after the White House briefing ended, the fake video of Jeffries and Schumer played on a loop via a video monitor inside the briefing room. Asked why the White House was showcasing the video in that manner, White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said, “The sombreros will continue until the Democrats reopen the government!”