WASHINGTON — President Trump has spent the first three days of the government shutdown waging a meme war against Democrats — featuring House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) in a sombrero and budget director Russ Vought as the Grim Reaper — driving engagement and conversation.
“We’re unburdened by traditional norms of what’s ‘acceptable’ in politics. We speak the people’s language, and people love this type of content,” a White House official told The Post of the unconventional messaging.
“Usually in government, there’s these unwritten rules, right? And we don’t subscribe to that.”
Insiders say the onslaught of online jokes, which have largely supplanted Trump’s typical daily media availabilities, has been devised mostly by the president and deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino.
A source familiar with the White House’s digital strategy says that the creative process typically also involves Kaelan Dorr, a deputy communications director.
“It’s Dan Scavino, Kaelan Dorr, and the White House digital team, but above all it’s President Trump leading the charge and driving the meme culture,” the source said.
“The White House knows this is the best way to reach the American people, and no administration in history has done it better. They’re absolutely dominating.”
The insider said that the process is “highly collaborative and ideas flow constantly around the White House where they are workshopped and sharpened.”
“Many of the ‘fire’ ideas come straight from President Trump himself — you see it every single day on his Truth Social. The White House digital team helps amplify and execute, but the spark starts with him,” the source said.
“The winning formula is simple. President Trump and this White House actually understand what the American people care about. The content does not tiptoe or sugarcoat. It speaks directly, hits hard, and tells the truth the way people are thinking it. That is why the engagement crushes anything we have seen before.”
Jeffries (D-NY) was initially depicted in a sombrero and elaborate mustache Monday night, with Trump tweeting a clip of him standing with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) on the White House driveway.
The dubbed-over audio has a Schumer-sounding voice saying: “Nobody likes Democrats anymore. We have no voters left because of all of our woke trans bulls—. Not even black people want to vote for us anymore. Even Latinos hate us. So we need new voters.”
The over-the-top voiceover then adds: “If we give all of these illegal aliens free healthcare, we might be able to get them on our side so they can vote for us. They can’t even speak English, so they won’t realize we are just a bunch of woke pieces of s—, at least for a while until they learn English and they realize they hate us too.”
The shutdown is premised on Democrats wanting to extend pandemic-era enhanced Obamacare subsidies — set to expire on Dec. 31 — and the video creatively emphasized Trump’s talking points about opposing their counter-proposal, including provisions to restore federal hospital reimbursement for illegal immigrants and insurance subsidies for asylum seekers who illegally crossed the border.
After the initial post, Jeffries accused the president of “bigotry” and slammed the “disgusting video” in an interview with MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell — drawing another round of attention to the original video, with Vice President JD Vance and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) being asked about it during subsequent press briefings.
The pro-Trump meme creator @TheRicanMemes, who self-identifies on X as Puerto Rican, made a clip of Jeffries’ complaints backed by an all-Trump mariachi band to further ridicule the Brooklyn Democrat.
Trump shared the second clip Tuesday night, just before the shutdown began at midnight Wednesday, and the White House press office played it for two days on a loop on the TV screens in the briefing room.
On Thursday night, Trump used another content creator’s video, showing the president playing the cowbell to the tune of Blue Oyster Cult’s 1976 hit “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper.”
Vought wore a hood and held a scythe as he scoured Washington for cuts — underscoring White House threats to permanently fire thousands of federal workers at execiutive branch agencies if Democrats refuse to pass a “clean” temporary spending bill.
“It’s harnessing the power of what we do best, which is leveraging social media and giving our influencers and our supporters content to push out on their channels,” the White House official told The Post.
“It’s a perfect combination of what’s happening in the real world and making it digestible for people to use online.”
