Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) is facing scrutiny from critics on social media after pulling a page out of President Donald Trump’s playbook.
In a video post on X, Cruz edited sombreros and mustaches onto dozens of Senate Democrats who voted against the GOP’s proposal to temporarily fund the government — a nod to the president’s AI-generated videos of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) that have gone viral on social media.
In one fake video, posted on Trump’s Truth Social platform late Monday, Jeffries is wearing a sombrero and sporting a mustache alongside Schumer, who says in a fabricated voice that Democrats “have no voters anymore, because of our woke, trans bulls—.”
“If we give all these illegal aliens health care, we might be able to get them on our side so they can vote for us,” Schumer said in the fake voice, referencing a misleading claim amplified by Republican leaders that Democrats shut down the government to give free health care to illegal immigrants.
As the video has faced backlash from Democrats, with some calling it racist, Cruz warned that “Sombrero posting” would continue until they “re-open our government,” which entered the second day of a shutdown on Thursday.
The video features the pop song “Macarena,” with Trump’s voice singing in the background.
“Kamala’s never gonna beat me in November, Donald’s gonna make the country better than you can remember. Kamala’s never gonna beat me in November, hey Macarena!” the AI-generated voice of Trump voice said.
Several social media users questioned Cruz’s ability to poke fun at Democrats — with many pointing to his 2021 trip to Mexico during a devastating Texas storm.
“Guy who went to Cancun during his state’s deadly natural disaster has thoughts about sombreros,” progressive journalist Mehdi Hasan replied on X.
Author Stephen King, a critic of Trump, added: “Thus spake Cancun Ted. (I say it with all affection.)”
“Ah, we got jokes, eh #FledTed?” another user posted, attaching an AI-edited video of Cruz, with the words, “Vacations be like…”
A different user joked, “we used to be a serious empire.”
Others found entertainment in the play off of Trump, responding with their own fake videos.
During the White House press briefing on Wednesday, Vice President JD Vance defended the president’s posts, saying that Trump was joking. He said that if Jeffries worked to end the government shutdown, the memes would “stop.”
“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 poking some fun at the absurdity of the Democrats themselves,” Vance told reporters.
The Senate again failed to advance the Republican House-passed bill for a third time on Wednesday, with the measure receiving a 55-45 vote, short of the required 60 votes for approval. Most Democrats have aligned around their own proposed measure, which centers on extending Affordable Care Act subsidies before they expire at the end of the year, as well as undoing cuts to Medicaid in Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” passed this summer.
With the Senate observing Yom Kippur on Thursday, Friday will be the next opportunity to vote on government funding.