Schumer: Trump 'trolling' on Internet like a 10-year-old with government about to shut down

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) vented his frustration with President Trump Tuesday after Trump posted a video on social media using artificial intelligence to parody Schumer’s press conference with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) at the White House.

The doctored video, which the president posted to Truth Social, depicts Jeffries wearing an animated sombrero and handlebar mustache and the senator bad-mouthing his own party while Latin-inspired music plays in the background.  

“Hours away from a shutdown, which we don’t want, the American people don’t want, the president is busy trolling away on the Internet like 10-year-old," Schumer fumed on the Senate floor. "And that’s exactly why Americans are going to blame him if the government shuts down."

He made sure to clarify that the video was “fake,” even though the slightly garbled audio quality and stilted phrasing had all the signs of being a low-quality AI-generated spoof.

“The president posted a face video of Leader Jeffries and me with [a] sombrero, fake music, impersonating my voice through AI — it wasn’t me — talking more lies about health care and immigration,” Schumer explained.

The fake video opened with the computer-generated version of the New York Democrat saying, “Look guys, there’s no way to sugar coat it, nobody likes Democrats anymore.”

The mocking post is the latest sign that the two parties remain far apart on a government funding deal, even though Schumer told reporters Monday that Trump seemed open to addressing rising health insurance costs when he met with Democrats at the White House.

Jeffries in an MSNBC interview said Trump’s decision to repost the video was “designed to be a malignant distraction from people who are determined to continue to rip healthcare away from the American people.”