Hakeem Jeffries' Attempt to Engage in a Meme War with JD Vance Backfires Badly
House Minority Leader 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 tweet 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
This is so embarrassing for you.
— TCrump (@TeresaCrumpler) October 1, 2025
JD finds this meme hilarious, you’re not exactly doing what you think you’re doing here
— captive dreamer (@avaricum777) October 1, 2025
Democrats can’t meme. https://t.co/cOfOSHIJ43
— Cass Barrett (@cassbarrett16) October 2, 2025
In a government shutdown that’s placed squarely at their door, Democrats are locked in a public relations war they can’t win.
And they definitely can’t win it by shooting themselves in the foot.
But they can’t seem to stop.
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