Three years into Barack Obama’s first term, as House Republicans pushed the nation closer to a government shutdown, Donald Trump spoke up and urged the public to blame the Democratic president. “If there is a shutdown I think it would be a tremendously negative mark on the president of the United States,” he told NBC News. “He’s the one that has to get people together.”
Fourteen years later, it’s Trump who’s in the White House, demonstrating his own unique approach to getting people together to prevent a shutdown. The New York Times reported:
President Trump shared an A.I.-generated video on Truth Social, mocking the Democrats’ congressional leaders hours after he met with them in negotiations to avert a government shutdown. The video, which fabricated the voice of Senator Chuck Schumer at a news conference on Monday afternoon, falsely accuses Democrats of trying to give free health care to undocumented immigrants to gain their support. In the video, the Democrats’ House leader, Representative Hakeem Jeffries, who is Black, is pictured with a fake mustache and wearing a sombrero.
There was nothing subtle about the video’s message — or its fake mustache and sombrero. Indeed, the clip the president promoted used computer-generated speech to portray Schumer as saying Democrats are “woke pieces of s—.”
Not surprisingly, Democrats were not amused. Jeffries spoke to MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell and called the video “disgusting,” before adding, “Bigotry will get you nowhere.”
Jeffries: "It's a disgusting video and we're gonna continue to make clear — bigotry will get you nowhere. We are fighting to protect the healthcare of the American people in the face of an unprecedented Republican assault."
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2025-09-30T02:19:13.178Z
The following morning, the House minority leader, flanked by Democratic colleagues, told reporters, “Mr. President, the next time you have something to say about me, don’t cop out through a racist and fake AI video. When I’m back in the Oval Office, say it to my face.”
At the heart of the ugly video was the idea that Democrats, by fighting to make health care affordable for American families, are secretly trying to fund coverage for undocumented immigrants — a line House Speaker Mike Johnson continued to peddle on Fox News Monday night.
He and his party are lying about this, though it’s apparently a key part of the GOP’s shutdown strategy.
But let’s also not lose sight of the larger context: Four hours after a White House meeting with congressional leaders and roughly 28 hours before the shutdown deadline, the sitting American president thought it’d be a good idea to amplify an AI-generated video attacking Democrats — whose votes will be needed to resolve the standoff — that was equal parts vulgar, racist and dishonest. It might seem like ages ago, but during Trump’s first campaign, he presented himself to voters as a world-class dealmaker who knew exactly how to bring Democrats and Republicans together to reach bipartisan agreements. He was the consummate negotiator, Trump said, who knew what it took to make deals happen. A decade later, those boasts have been exposed as a sham. As Schumer summarized in response to the president’s post, “If you think your shutdown is a joke, it just proves what we all know: You can’t negotiate. You can only throw tantrums.” This post has been updated with additional congressional reactions.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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