Copyright MSNBC
White House digital staffers have unleashed a social media strategy full of taunting memes and fake videos, following President Donald Trump’s lead in a bid to bolster his base as the government shutdown drags on. The amped-up tactics are meant to mock Democrats for their proposal to reverse recently passed restrictions on Medicaid, which the GOP falsely claims pays for health care for undocumented immigrants. The memes include a recurring stunt of placing animated sombreros atop images of Democratic leaders. Democrats, for their part, have not responded in kind on social media. Instead, they have mostly stuck to sharing their segments on cable news, and posting explainer videos on the health care tax credits they’re pushing to extend in negotiations. They’ve also continued to criticize the president’s social media activity. Which approach wins out in the minds of voters and vulnerable lawmakers could help determine how long the shutdown continues and which party ultimately gets more of what it wants. The online attacks underscore a social media apparatus surrounding Trump that reflects his own personal digital habits and brazen approach to politics. His aides are “very much in tune with President Trump’s style, which is ‘controversy enhances message,’ and social media helps enhance that controversy,” said Bryan Lanza, a former Trump campaign senior adviser. That was “a theory in Trump 1.0,” Lanza added, a reference to the president’s first term. “It’s just become a proven fact in Trump 2.0," he said. Case in point: In a late-night post on his preferred platform, Truth Social, Trump shared a video showing House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries — the first Black person to hold that job — wearing a fake sombrero and curled mustache outside the West Wing. It was also artificially manipulated to depict Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer delivering remarks and using profanities degrading his own party that Schumer never said. That post came hours after an unfruitful meeting between party leaders in the Oval Office about the budget standoff, and it instantly caught heat from Democrats. “It’s disgraceful. It’s racist,” Rep. Madeleine Dean, D-Pa., said in a confrontational exchange caught on camera with Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson, who replied saying it was “not my style.” In a news conference the following day, a defiant Jeffries dared the 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.” It’s unclear who created the video. Trump is known to repost content from his supporters online, but MSNBC could not identify whether the video was originally shared by another user before it was posted to the president’s personal account. Regardless, after it generated headlines and provoked Democrats, the White House seized on the imagery on its own official social platforms. The sizes of the sombreros have gotten progressively larger in subsequent posts, an intentional choice by Trump’s team. One Instagram post featured Sesame Street’s Elmo screaming with bright-red flames behind him and donning a sombrero. “We are doubling down,” a slide on the same post reads, with a smiley face. On Friday, the White House and a handful of other agencies joined Bluesky, an alternative platform to X, where users tend to lean progressive. The trolling continued over the weekend, with the White House posting images of Trump and Vice President JD Vance wearing crowns — above more images of Jeffries and Schumer in sombreros — while large crowds protested Trump’s agenda across the country in a demonstration dubbed “No Kings.” After Trump's account posted a fake video of him flying a plane dumping a substance that appeared to be excrement or sewage on demonstrators, Democratic influencer Harry Sisson asked on X: “Can a reporter please ask Trump why he posted an AI video of himself dropping poop on me from a fighter jet? That would be great thanks.” The memes come against the backdrop of the administration pursuing a widespread mass deportation effort of undocumented immigrants in major cities, a campaign that detractors argue disproportionately targets Latino communities. In its first posts on Bluesky, the State Department wrote, “We also heard this is a great place to research visa revocations.” Democrats remain muted Elected Democrats have largely refused to take the bait. California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who scored attention a few weeks ago with a series of social posts mimicking Trump’s exclamation point-laden and all-caps postings, has had a few viral shutdown clips. But his peers have mostly preferred not to hit back sharply online. Eric Wilson, a Republican digital strategist who worked on Marco Rubio’s presidential campaign, said Democrats “come off looking like a scold” by complaining “about something that’s clearly meant to be funny.” Still, Wilson acknowledged, the Democratic Party’s base “would be very upset with them if they weren’t out there saying, ‘This is wrong.’” The Democratic National Committee did share a video of kittens explaining the shutdown on TikTok, with 4.4 million views as of Monday, showing a cat crying over higher health care bills. There are signs that the staid approach is resonating: A CNBC survey of Americans conducted between Oct. 8 and Oct. 12 found 53% said they would blame Trump and Republicans if the shutdown "were to cause significant economic damage." “When you have people like Mike Johnson and Donald Trump saying the words ‘Affordable Care Act,’ or saying the words ‘health care,’ then you know that Democrats are the ones driving the narrative,” said Parker Butler, a digital strategist for Democratic campaigns. “I think this is one of the few examples in this past year where I think we’ve seen that.” Is the White House plan working? The key question is whether the White House’s shutdown social strategy is catered to Trump’s core or meant to win over the broader public. The answer matters, given the president faces an uphill battle to convince voters that Democrats are responsible for the lapse in government funding that has caused air-travel disruptions, museum closures and missed paychecks for thousands. Butler says the White House is “basically preaching to the choir,” suggesting that the sombrero memes, for example, don’t resonate with “persuadable voters.” “You can see that with the polling,” he added. The White House account's recent tone resembles that of a campaign. Trump outperformed his rivals on social platforms like TikTok in 2024. Previous administrations, including former President Joe Biden’s staff, have also made eye-catching social-media posts that are typically unusual for official accounts, where posts tend to be more informational and generic, though still fawning. But Trump’s staff is taking bigger swings online, more often. “They understand that flooding the zone is what works,” Wilson said of Trump’s White House. “I still communicate with my friends with memes, and funny YouTube videos, and so the fact that the White House is doing that as well just shows that they understand how conversations happen.” Sometimes the president’s social media activity complicates his communication team’s messaging. Trump posted an ominous AI-generated video portraying his Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought — who is spearheading mass layoffs of federal employees — as the grim reaper. That ran starkly counter to his press secretary describing the firings as “an unfortunate consequence,” and his chief economist saying the administration doesn’t “want anyone to lose their job.” Humor and memes “can be an effective strategy, but there has to be a little bit of tact behind it,” Butler said. “I don’t think that they’ve shown that in this shutdown battle." It doesn’t seem like the president’s social team is slowing down any time soon. As Vance told reporters Oct. 1 in a comment addressed to Jeffries: “If you help us reopen the government, the sombrero memes will stop.”
