The Shitposter-In-Chief
The White House responded to the bizarre AI-generated video Donald Trump posted in which he announced high tech hospitals would be opening with medbeds, medical marvels which will cure literally everything, accessible to every single American:
I think the president saw the video and posted it and then took it down. And he has the right to do that. It’s his social media. He’s incredibly transparent as you all know. You hear from him directly on social media. He likes to share memes. He likes to share videos. He likes to repost things that he sees other people post on social media as well. And I think it’s quite refreshing that we have a president who is so open and honest. Directly himself, many a times on Truth, you’re hearing directly from the president of the United States.
— White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt
The questions she was asked which prompted this response were “what was he trying to communicate to the public?” and “why did he delete it?” She did not explain what he was trying to communicate. She did not explain why he deleted it. This has been a common tactic of the right for quite some time now. The only response to “Why did you say that thing?” is “I have a right to say that thing” which doesn’t answer the question and isn’t in dispute. And in this case, it’s ridiculous to say his post was about being open and honest when he published a completely fake video of him announcing a fake medical tech while lying about giving Americans access to healthcare.
We still do not know if Trump understood he did not make the announcements in the video. We do not know if he believes medbeds are a real technology. And we are not likely to ever know these things as after this reporter asked about the medbed video and Karoline Leavitt gave her non-response, not a single reporter asked a follow-up question and I suspect we never hear this mentioned by a White House reporter again.
The shitposter-in-chief has posted multiple AI-generated videos since then, though none touting fake medical panaceas. Earlier this year, the president posted a disgusting video of himself running resorts along the Gazan beach after removing the Palestinians who live there. After the death of the Pope, we got Trump posting an AI-generated photo of himself as the Pope.
More recently, the master negotiator responded to the failed negotiations over keeping the government open by posting a completely AI generated video of Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer. Jeffries is given a sombrero and a large moustache while the following words are put into Schumer’s mouth:
Look guys, there’s no way to sugarcoat it. Nobody likes Democrats anymore. We have no voters left because of all of our woke trans bullshit. Not even Black people want to vote for us anymore. Even Latinos hate us. So we need new voters. And if we give all these illegal aliens free health care, we might be able to get ‘em on our side so they can vote for us. They can’t even speak English, so they won’t realize we’re just a bunch of woke pieces of shit, you know, at least for a while until they learn English and they realize they hate us too.
Replacement theory is the idea, largely propagated by white supremacists and neo-Nazis, that Democrats import immigrants to vote in our elections. Immigrants cannot vote in US elections and as always, Republican claims of large scale voter fraud are lies. But truth has never stood in the way of their racism.
There’s another lie here. Undocumented immigrants are not eligible for ACA plans and do not receive Medicare or Medicaid benefits. The only health care benefit they receive from the government is access to emergency rooms via the EMTLA. The pertinent provision here is that emergency rooms must stabilize everyone who shows up. The alternative would mean ER doctors investigating someone’s legal status before providing any sort of treatment. I hopefully don’t have to explain how burdensome that would be.
The White House, and therefore many elected Republicans, are claiming the shutdown is about paying for healthcare for undocumented immigrants. This is another lie. While I am very much in the camp of “yes, that sounds like an excellent and moral thing to do,” almost no elected Democrats are and absolutely nothing in the current dispute has anything at all to do with healthcare for immigrants. On Friday, Karoline Leavitt echoed the lie that the shutdown was about “free healthcare” for undocumented immigrants. As emergency room access is the ONLY healthcare benefit accessible by undocumented immigrants, Leavitt was asked if the White House is against having emergency rooms treat emergencies from immigrants. She said the White House is not against this. (It would not matter if they were as this is a law). She immediately ended the press conference rather than be asked “If you are for the only benefit undocumented immigrants receive, just what the hell are you talking about when you say the shut down is about healthcare benefits for undocumented immigrants?” Of course the truth is far simpler - when Republicans say Democrats shut down the government in order to give free healthcare to immigrants, they are lying.
At the meeting which preceded this video, Trump had 2028 Trump campaign hats to offer Schumer and Jeffries. These are the people he was trying to negotiate a spending bill with. Instead, he taunted them with an illegal 3rd term. The president has of course posted an AI-generated video of himself tossing a Trump 2028 hat to Jeffries and laughing maniacally.
The president is not mentally well.
Democrats pointed out the racism inherent in the first fake video. Vice President Vance said he couldn’t understand what was racist about it. My senator, Ted Cruz, who folded to Trump even after Trump threatened his wife and said his father may have helped murder JFK, posted a montage of Democrats wearing sombreros. In response, the White House posted another AI-generated video of Jeffries in a sombrero, this time with a mariachi band of multiple Donald Trumps playing behind him.
Trump and the Republicans have pledged to conduct mass firings of government employees and explicitly cut programs only to blue states during the shutdown. This is illegal but in line with OMB Director Russell Vought’s belief that what the Constitution says about budgeting isn’t actually binding and the executive branch has the power to unilaterally stop mandated spending. In line with this false belief, the White House posted yet another AI video of Vought as the grim reaper, killing “Democratic” spending. With multiple cases currently in court over this very issue, it’s important to remind you Vought has no authority to cut Congressionally mandated spending and spending bills are LAWS. The government shutting down does not change his authority in any way.
It’s not clear if the president can tell the difference between reality and these AI slop videos, especially as evidenced by the bizarre medbed video he posted. To justify sending troops to Portland, the president keeps citing videos he’s seeing of fires and unrest throughout the city. This is not taking place. In fact, the judge issuing the temporary restraining order preventing him from sending troops to Portland explicitly pointed out that the things the president is saying are not happening. Fox has been running 5 year old footage of Portland. It’s rather obvious Donald Trump is watching them not understanding they are not current.
Following up on a different story, we have learned that FBI Director Kash Patel wanted a “perp walk” for former FBI Director James Comey. There are multiple problems here. Department of Justice policy explicitly forbids perp walks. Donald Trump is a convicted felon who was himself never perp walked despite multiple arrests for FAR more serious charges. The charges against Comey are ridiculous and he is likely to prevail in getting the case dismissed. If not, he is almost certain to win in a trial. But Trump wants the imagery of his critics in handcuffs - for propaganda, not justice. Lastly, the government already organized Comey’s self surrender. There isn’t a way TO have Comey in chains marched before the cameras when he is going to show up in court himself.
The agent tasked with setting up Comey’s perp walk refused to participate. Naturally, he has been fired.
The president may not be able to tell fiction from reality any more. But he does understand the power of propaganda. And the propaganda he prefers is identical to every fascist dictatorship in history.
Thank you for supporting my work. Please consider sharing these updates or giving a donation.