As the United States braced for its first government shutdown in nearly seven years, President Donald Trump turned to an old playbook: taunting his political rivals.
Rather than signalling compromise, the president spent the final hours before the funding deadline flooding his Truth Social account with memes, doctored videos and theatrical stunts designed to unsettle Democrats.
In one particularly pointed gesture, Trump placed bright red “Trump 2028” hats on the Resolute Desk during a meeting with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. The hats mocked the constitutional two-term limit, and the images quickly spread online.
Jeffries later told reporters the caps “just randomly appeared in the middle of the meeting… It was the strangest thing ever.”
J.D. Vance, a Republican senator and close Trump ally, acknowledged the move made Democrats “very uncomfortable” but insisted the talks were still “a very good conversation” before collapsing into finger-pointing.
The hat prank was tame compared with what came next. On Monday, Trump posted an AI-generated video depicting Schumer using crude language and Jeffries in a sombrero and fake moustache, accompanied by mariachi music. Democrats denounced the video as racist and misleading.
Jeffries called it “racist and fake,” while Trump’s allies shrugged off the criticism. Donald Trump Jr. mocked Democrats with emojis on X, writing that his father had “another sombrero” ready if they complained.
The White House joined in with its own trolling, looping old footage of Democrats opposing previous shutdowns on screens in the press briefing room.
Supporters defended the president’s antics as harmless humour. Michael LaRosa, a former spokesman for First Lady Jill Biden, wrote on X: “If you can’t laugh at this then you epitomize the problem with the Democratic Party these days. Let’s all lighten up a bit.”
Not all Democrats were inclined to ignore the spectacle. California Governor Gavin Newsom shot back in Trump’s own brash style, posting: “TRUMP ALWAYS CHICKENS OUT (T.A.C.O.). NO SOMBRERO NEEDED!”
But beyond the trolling lies a harder edge. Trump has threatened mass layoffs during the shutdown, saying it could be a chance to “get rid of a lot of things that we didn’t want. They’d be Democrat things.”
For now, public opinion appears divided. A Siena College/New York Times poll conducted last week found 26 percent of voters blamed Trump and Republicans in Congress, 19 percent blamed Democrats, while 33 percent said both sides were equally at fault.
The president’s online offensive underscores the reality of American politics in 2025: where the fight for control of the narrative can be as fierce—and perhaps as consequential—as the policy battles themselves.
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