President Donald Trump finds new ways every morning to create outrage among Democrats and the commentariat class. In the midst of the “Schumer Shutdown,” the President has engaged in some epic, hilarious trolls to the apoplexy of the left and to the delight of conservatives and everyone with a sense of humor (apologies for the repetition). From sombreros to the sounds of Blue Oyster Cult parodies, the President has been funny and on point.
The first bit of trolling was an AI-altered video on September 29 showing Democratic House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries in a sombrero and a curly mustache standing next to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. Schumer’s voice is dubbed over by AI to have him explain that the Democrats are funding illegal immigrants to get more voters because “Nobody likes Democrats anymore.” The video has Schumer attribute this to the party’s “woke, trans bulls***.”
“Not even black people want to vote for us anymore,” lamented AI Schumer. “Even Latinos hate us.”
Fresh off demanding that former blackface performer Jimmy Kimmel be reinstated from suspension for mocking the death of Charlie Kirk, the Democrats now pretended to be outraged by the sombrero imagery. Hakeem Jeffries, who previously attempted to play the tough guy by posing for pictures carrying a baseball bat, only ended up making the nation giggle when he again tried to challenge Trump.
“The next time you have something to say about me, don’t cop out through a racist and fake AI video,” Jeffries said. “When I’m back in the Oval Office, say it to my face.”
Not only did Jeffries again fail to impress America, he provoked Trump to post yet another AI video on September 30. In the second one, Jeffries is speaking on MSNBC above a chyron that reads “TRUMP POSTS RACIST AI VIDEO AFTER WH MEETING W/ DEMS.” Jeffries is wearing the sombrero and mustache again and a four-piece mariachi band composed of instrument-playing AI Donald Trump figures (all in sombreros!) appears behind him.
The videos not only drove Democrats crazy; they also kept the focus on the Democratic insistence on funding illegal alien healthcare. But it was the video Trump shared on October 3 that was both the funniest and the most savvy.
Yet another AI video, it was a version of the Blue Öyster Cult’s “Fear the Reaper” in which Trump himself is playing the cowbell in a dark monastic robe, J.D. Vance plays the drum in a suit, and Russell Vought, Director of the Office of Management and Budget, is depicted as the scythe-wielding Grim Reaper.
The lyrics announce that Vought “wields the pen, the funds, and the brain.” It is hilarious, but it makes a serious point. Because of the shutdown, the Trump administration has broad leeway to cut waste, fraud, and abuse while Democrats refuse to fund the government.
As journalist James Rosen recently said in an interview with the Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins, “This is a president determined to use all the levers of executive authority and power.” He added that, “In this setting, a shutdown,” Trump seems willing to “seize the moment,” perhaps even pursuing massive reductions in the federal workforce.
Indeed, Vought was talking about such a plan before the shutdown began. On September 24, The Hill reported on a memo Vought sent that “essentially directs agencies to permanently fire some federal employees that otherwise would be furloughed during a shutdown but then return to work once Congress reopens the government.”And on Wednesday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said announcements of layoffs and firings would be in “two days, imminent, very soon.”
Thus far, the announcements of layoffs haven’t come. We can guess that such plans haven’t been shelved; instead, Vought is likely making sure any moves to prune our overgrown government are solidly based in law and government policy.
In the meantime, Vought the Reaper hasn’t been doing nothing. On October 1, Vought announced on X: “Nearly $8 billion in Green New Scam funding to fuel the Left’s climate agenda is being cancelled.” That these projects are all in blue states is not surprising, given that these are the states that have been taking money from the “green” funding.
What’s truly amazing is that in the Department of Energy announcement of the canceled grants, the reader sees this: “Of the 321 financial awards terminated, 26% were awarded between Election Day and Inauguration Day. Those awards alone were valued at over $3.1 billion.”
In other words, thanks to the shutdown, the American people are learning the full scope of the Biden administration’s corrupt efforts to funnel billions of tax dollars to Democrats – an egregious error that the Trump administration is now correcting.
On October 3, Vought announced another potential bit of savings: “$2.1 billion in Chicago infrastructure projects – specifically the Red Line Extension and the Red and Purple Modernization Project – have been put on hold to ensure funding is not flowing via race-based contracting. More info to come soon from @USDOT.” The same day, he announced, “Roughly $18 billion in New York City infrastructure projects have been put on hold to ensure funding is not flowing based on unconstitutional DEI principles.”
Given the likelihood that both Chicago and New York are indeed discriminating based on race, Americans might just see either significant savings of federal monies going to these states or—let us pray—reform to their still woke systems.
There are plenty of other areas that Vought can consider. Iowa Senator Joni Ernst posted an eight-page letter on X identifying plenty of other outrageous government waste that could be cut to the tune of $2 trillion. She included rescinding unspent COVID-19 funds, consolidating government office space, stopping mass transit boondoggles and ridiculous science grants, and canceling the bonuses of mediocre government employees. And, yes, Senator Ernst advocates working “with the Office of Personnel Management to right-size the federal workforce.”
So committed to outrageous spending, Democrats look like they are going to keep this shutdown going for at least another week. But they may discover that they have handed the Trump administration a golden opportunity to use the levers of power to do what it takes to reduce our bloated bureaucracy.
Democrats fear the Reaper. What they might find out is that American citizens are rooting for him.
David P. Deavel teaches at the University of St. Thomas in Houston. A past Lincoln Fellow at the Claremont Institute, he is a Senior Contributor at The Imaginative Conservative. Follow him on X (Twitter) @davidpdeavel.
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