Want to know who’s winning in politics? Look at who’s laughing and who’s trying to keep their chin up.
Remember those joyful early days of then-Vice President Kamala Harris‘s campaign? They were laughing because they were winning. But as soon as her numbers nosedived — or rather, as soon as she began speaking off script — the cackles dissolved into grim stares and apocalyptic warnings about the “fate of democracy.”
WHY THE GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN COULD DRAG ON
So who’s winning the shutdown battle? Just look at their faces.
I confess that I have no idea why the White House shared a meme showing Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) wearing a sombrero and a big mustache on Wednesday. I do my best not to linger in internet culture longer than I need to on a given workday, and I’m often baffled by the daily kerfuffle online. All I know for sure is that I giggled when I saw it. And from the reactions of both sides, it was clear who thought they were winning the shutdown battle — and who just realized they’d jumped into a puddle deeper than their boots.
I also got a good laugh out of seeing Jeffries’s sour face sitting in front of the Resolute desk covered with “Trump 2028” hats. It’s not because I’m particularly fond of President Donald Trump (I’m not) or because I hate Jeffries, but because it’s just funny. It’s the classic comedic setup: the straight-man and the clown, Bud Abbott deadpanning Lou Costello’s wordplay in “Who’s on First?” or Sean Connery tearing into the somber “why me” Alex Trebek on SNL’s Celebrity Jeopardy.
People who are winning have fun like this. It’s not an attempt to manipulate the narrative. It’s just human nature.
And boy, are Republicans having fun right now. The White House played the Jeffries sombrero meme on a loop in the briefing room on Wednesday — just to make sure the self-serious legacy media would make a fuss about it. Which, of course, they did.
I hadn’t heard about the sombrero meme until I turned on CNN’s Kaitlan Collins after watching my Yankees beat the Red Sox in Game Two of the playoffs (see you tonight in Beantown!). But I knew the moment I saw her somber countenance above a big, bold crawl that read “Vance calls racist AI video ‘funny’” that the White House had hit a grand slam.
Then I watched the video, and, of course, there was simply nothing racist about the meme. It’s just an artificial intelligence-generated video of Jeffries in a sombrero and a mustache standing behind Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), complaining that minorities don’t vote for Democrats anymore, which is a very real trend. Jeffries isn’t Mexican, and there’s nothing anti-Mexican about the meme. It’s just kind of goofy, the kind of thing that inexplicably hits the funny bone and goes viral, like those “Baby JD Vance” images. I don’t know what’s behind those memes either (does anyone?) They’re just funny.
Jeffries later held a press conference to address the meme (who holds a press conference about a meme?), in which he called the video “racist and fake,” saying, “When I’m back in the Oval Office, say it to my face.”
And wouldn’t that just be a riot, Trump handing Jeffries a sombrero instead of a “Trump 2028” hat?
Later in the broadcast, Collins lamented of the White House, “They simply don’t care about the criticism.”
LIVE UPDATES: GOVERNMENT ENTERS SHUTDOWN WITH NO DEAL IN SIGHT
And it’s true, they don’t. Nor should they or anyone else. America cared about criticism like this once, but then the critics spent years beclowning themselves with an endless string of fabricated controversies and false reporting. No one takes these critics seriously anymore — no one beyond their sad, shrinking bubble, that is.
Now, self-serious Democrats and their media allies just make America laugh. And it’s good fun, too.
