Hakeem Jeffries’ Attempt to Engage in a Meme War with JD Vance Backfires Badly

Conservative News DailyOctober 2, 2025

The article discusses a recent political exchange involving House Speaker Hakeem Jeffries amid a government shutdown blamed largely on Democrats, especially Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. In an attempt to counter a viral,AI-generated video from the Trump White House mocking Democrats-depicting Schumer speaking truthfully and Jeffries wearing an exaggerated sombrero-Jeffries responded by posting a doctored video of Vice President J.D. Vance, incorporating a popular meme that makes fun of VanceS appearance. However, this backfired as Vance reportedly finds the meme amusing and is not offended by it. Social media users criticized Jeffries for the misfire, pointing out that Democrats struggle with memes and public relations, especially during the politically sensitive shutdown. The piece highlights how Jeffries’ attempt to imitate Trump’s tactics ended up embarrassing him and failed to gain traction.

House Speaker Hakeem Jeffries must have thought he was fighting fire with fire — but he just ended up getting burned.

Amid a government shutdown that’s entirely the fault of his Democratic Party — and particularly Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer — Jeffries decided Wednesday to try to steal from President Donald Trump’s playbook to make a mockery of his opponents.

As the public response showed, though, Jeffries just ended up making a mockery of himself.

The Trump White House fired the first volley on Monday, when it posted an artificial intelligence-created video that showed Schumer apparently speaking the truth about Democrats (that’s how you know that it’s fake), and a mustachioed Jeffries sporting an outlandishly garish sombrero.

Jeffries took exception to the image — meant to highlight Democrats’ embrace of illegal aliens — and decided to return fire on Wednesday.

On the social media platform X, he posted a video of Vice President J.D. Vance addressing a news conference, but he added his own tweaks to incorporate a popular meme that’s supposed to be mocking Vance by showing him baldheaded, with bulging cheeks, and staring directly at a camera. (In Jeffries’ case, the doctored video used a version of the meme that showed Vance with a head full of unruly hair.)

Check it out here. The meme starts to appear about the 20-second mark.

JD Vance thinks we will surrender to the Republican effort to gut healthcare because of a Sombrero meme.

Not happening Bro. pic.twitter.com/TDVpPSSG6A

— Hakeem Jeffries (@hakeemjeffries) October 1, 2025

The problem for Jeffries, though, is that images like that clearly don’t get Vance’s gourd.

As the website “Know your meme” noted, the Vance meme has been around for some time. It hasn’t gotten much of a rise out of the VP — in fact, it’s just the opposite.

Back in March, Julio Rosas, a reporter for TheBlaze, noted on X that, “VP Vance has seen many of the memes/edits of his pictures and thinks it’s a funny trend.”

: Landed back at Joint Base Andrews with Vice President Vance. I can confirm VP Vance has seen many of the memes/edits of his pictures and thinks it’s a funny trend.@theblaze

— Julio Rosas (@Julio_Rosas11) March 6, 2025

And as the social media reaction showed, that embrace makes all the difference.

“I love that you think this is some kind of gotcha,” one user noted, addressing Jeffries.

I love that you think this is some kind of gotcha, as if @jdvance doesn’t out this meme himself. It’s a character created by the right out of endearment, and you think it’s some kind of dig. pic.twitter.com/xfPs9t6cnd

— OleBuildingStan (@buildingstan3) October 1, 2025