President Donald Trump trolled Democrat congressional leaders with "Trump 2028" hats on his desk during an Oval Office meeting ahead of the government shutdown.
Trump met with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., as well as GOP leaders Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., and House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., at the White House on Tuesday.
The president took to his social media platform Tuesday night to post three photos from the meeting.
The first photo showed Johnson speaking with Schumer and Jeffries – with presidential portraits hanging in the background – and a red Trump 2028 baseball cap and a soda sitting on the president's desk.
The second photo showed Thune, Johnson, and Schumer with two red Trump 2028 caps on the desk in the foreground.
The third photo, taken from behind the lawmakers, showed Trump smirking and pointing at Jeffries, who turned toward someone who appeared to be Vice President JD Vance. Two Trump 2028 hats sat behind sodas on the desk.
Jeffries later told CNN the caps just "randomly appeared in the middle" of the meeting.
"He did not try to hand Leader Schumer and I the Trump 2028 hat. They just randomly appeared in the middle of the meeting on the desk. It was the strangest thing ever," Jeffries said.
"I just looked at the hat, looked at JD Vance, who was seated to my left, and said, 'Don't you got a problem with this?' and he said, 'No comment.' And that was the end of it."
Trump also posted a digitally altered video of a Jeffries MSNBC interview that included the House minority leader wearing a sombrero as a mariachi band of Trumps serenaded the Brooklyn Democrat.
A government shutdown began Wednesday after Democrats failed to vote for a continuing resolution (CR) to keep federal programs and services running.
Because Democrats only vote for CRs under Democrat presidencies, this is the third time Trump has presided over a federal funding lapse, the first since his return to the White House this year.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Charlie McCarthy, a writer/editor at Newsmax, has nearly 40 years of experience covering news, sports, and politics.
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