President Donald Trump highlighted a moment on social media that House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) described as the "strangest" part of his meeting at the White House.
Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) met with the president Monday at the Oval Office with their Republican counterparts, House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, along with Vice President JD Vance in an unsuccessful attempt to stave off a government shutdown.
Trump later posted photos on Truth Social showing two red "Trump 2028" hats sitting on his desk, reported The Daily Beast.
“They just randomly appeared in the middle of the meeting on the desk,” Jeffries told CNN's "NewsNight With Abby Phillip." “It was the strangest thing ever, and I just looked at the hat, looked at JD Vance, who was seated to my left, and said, ‘Don‘t you got a problem with this?' And he said, ‘No comment,' and that was the end of it.”
The Democratic minority leader also appeared Tuesday evening on MSNBC’s "The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell," where he ripped a "racist" Truth Social post from the president showing him wearing a sombrero and handlebar mustache in an AI-generated video. Trump posted another AI clip showing himself as multiple players in a mariachi band performing behind Jeffries.
“Bigotry will get you nowhere," Jeffries told O'Donnell.
“He‘s an unserious individual,” Jeffries added. “The Republicans are unserious at this point. They have no interest in having a good faith conversation, and all of the erratic, unhinged behavior that we‘ve seen subsequent to that White House meeting should suggest to the American people who actually is trying to drive us toward a government shutdown.”
He made similar points to Phillip, who suggested that Trump only invited him and Schumer to the White House as a trolling stunt.
“We just don‘t have serious negotiating partners right now,” Jeffries said. “On the other side of the aisle, because they‘re engaging in this erratic behavior, posting racist, fake AI videos. It speaks for itself in terms of the American people concluding who’s serious and who’s deadly unserious.”
