WATCH: Trump’s post of Rep. Jeffries with sombrero is ‘funny,’ Vance says

On Monday night, Trump used his Truth Social account to post a fake AI-generated video that played vulgar words and depicted Jeffries wearing a sombrero and handlebar-like mustache. Trump posted a similar video on the same platform the following night.

“The president’s joking and we’re having a good time,” Vance told reporters in the White House briefing room Wednesday. “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 said, referencing the ongoing negotiations amid the beginning of a government shutdown.

He pledged that the “sombrero memes will stop” if Jeffries, the first Black person to lead a major political party in either house of Congress, will “help us reopen the government.”

Jeffries responded during a briefing on Tuesday with House Democrats outside the Capitol. “Mr. President, the next time you have something to say about me, don’t cop out through a racist and fake AI video,” he said. “When I’m back in the Oval Office, say it to my face.”

Vance shot back on Wednesday.

“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?” the vice president said. “I saw one of the major TV stations put the meme up and then say this is AI-generated, and he had the curly animated mustache too. Do you really not realize [that] the American people recognized that he did not actually come to the White House wearing a sombrero and a black curly animation mustache? Give the country a little bit of credit. We’re all trying to do a very important job for the American people. The president of the United States likes to have a little bit of fun when he’s doing it, and I think that’s OK.”

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