President Donald Trump taunted Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) in new images released on social media.
In a post of his Truth Social platform late Tuesday, Trump attached images showing “Trump 2028″ hats placed in front of the two Democratic leaders as they met for an eleventh-hour Oval Office meeting on Monday to reach an agreement ahead of the current government shutdown.
In one photo, Trump is smirking as he appears to point to Jeffries while looking into the camera.
Amid a tense partisan standoff, the federal government shut down at midnight after Congress failed to come to a deal on how to extend funding. The Senate rejected separate Republican and Democratic proposals hours before the deadline, ultimately bringing the country into its first government shutdown since 2018.
Although the GOP controls both chambers of Congress, the party needs support from Democrats in order to pass a bill in the Senate, which requires at least 60 votes.
A major area of disagreement that sparked the impasse centered on health care, with Democratic leadership pushing for an extension of tax credits under the Affordable Care Act that are set to expire at the end of the year, as well as a reversal of Medicaid cuts in Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” passed this summer. Meanwhile, Republicans aimed to extend funding for seven weeks to allow time to continue working on annual spending bills.
During an appearance on CNN’s “NewsNight” Tuesday night, Jeffries said the two hats had “randomly appeared” during the middle of the meeting.
“It was the strangest thing ever, and I just looked at the hat, looked at [Vice President] JD Vance who was seated to my left, and said, ‘Don’t you got a problem with this?’ And he said, ‘No comment,’“ Jeffries said, adding, ”And that was the end of it.”
Vice President JD Vance responded to the hats while speaking on Fox News early Wednesday.
“There were also the Trump 2028 hats, which I think made the minority leader in both the House and Senate very uncomfortable,” Vance said on “Fox & Friends.”
While Trump has made several claims entertaining a third term, the U.S. Constitution prohibits any citizen from serving in the post more than twice. While speaking to NBC News in March, Trump did not rule out seeking another term, and during an appearance on CNBC in August, he said he would “probably not” run. The president also has been selling 2028 campaign merchandise through his online storefront.
Meanwhile, Trump has also turned to mocking Jeffries using other tactics. On Monday, the president posted a video showing a fake Jeffries and Schumer speaking to reporters after the meeting — with a fabricated voice of Schumer saying Democrats “have no voters anymore, because of our woke, trans bulls—.” Jeffries, alongside him, is shown wearing a sombrero while mariachi music plays in the background.
After Jeffries slammed the video as “disgusting,” Trump has since uploaded a second phony video late Tuesday of him playing mariachi music behind Jeffries, who is wearing a different sombrero.