Hakeem Jeffries deepfake video — Oct 2026

During a federal government shutdown, President Donald Trump utilized his Truth Social account to share AI-generated content targeting political opponents. The posts included videos mocking House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought. These digital artifacts were shared amidst ongoing tensions regarding federal funding, potential layoffs, and negotiations over government operations.

What happened

President Trump shared multiple AI-generated videos as part of a social media strategy to troll Democrats during the shutdown. One video depicted OMB Director Russ Vought as the Grim Reaper, set to a song describing him as a figure of impending doom. This post followed meetings regarding the conservative policy playbook known as Project 2025, which advocates for the elimination of federal agencies and the firing of federal workers.

In separate posts, the president shared AI-generated content featuring House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. One video depicted Jeffries wearing a sombrero and a fake mustache, which Jeffries subsequently characterized as racist and bigoted. Another AI-generated video showed Jeffries wearing a TRUMP 2028 hat while appearing to negotiate with the president in the White House.

White House officials and allies defended the use of these memes, describing them as jokes intended to troll political opponents. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt stated that the president likes to have fun, while House Speaker Mike Johnson argued that the memes were used to point out the absurdity of the Democratic position during the shutdown. Despite the defense, the use of synthetic media to depict political figures in controversial or stereotypical scenarios drew significant criticism from the targeted individuals and sparked broader debate regarding the use of AI in political discourse.