Trump Trolls Dem Leaders With Leaked Photo As Govt. Shutdown Begins

Americans awoke Wednesday to the first federal government shutdown in seven years — and President Donald Trump used the moment to troll his political rivals.

On social media, Trump shared a photo from a White House meeting the day before, showing Speaker Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) glancing nervously as Trump, grinning, pointed across the Resolute Desk. Sitting prominently in the photo: two hats reading “TRUMP 2028.”

According to those in the room, the hats mysteriously appeared just before Vice President J.D. Vance cracked a joke that left the room in laughter. Asked later about their significance, Vance only smirked.

Jeffries, clearly rattled, tried to dismiss the stunt in a CNN interview.

“He did not try to hand us the Trump 2028 hat. They just randomly appeared in the middle of the meeting,” Jeffries insisted. “It was the strangest thing ever.”

But while Trump’s trolling grabbed headlines, the shutdown itself is having deeper consequences. The president has vowed to use the lapse in funding to permanently downsize Washington’s bloated bureaucracy. Tens of thousands of federal workers are facing layoffs, not just temporary furloughs.

“We can do things during the shutdown that are irreversible — that are bad for them and irreversible by them — by cutting vast numbers of people out, cutting things that they like, cutting programs that they like,” Trump told the Daily Mail. “A lot of good can come from shutdowns.”

Emergency personnel and active-duty military will continue working, though without pay, while most of the government’s three million employees are furloughed.

The immediate blame for the shutdown rests with Senate Democrats, who on Wednesday blocked a House-passed clean resolution that would have kept the government funded. The bill failed 55–45 after falling short of the 60 votes needed to advance.

Notably, Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.), and Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) broke with party leadership and backed the GOP proposal.

That left Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) isolated, under fire from Republicans and even from some in his own party.

Schumer’s about-face is especially glaring. In March, he provided Democratic votes to avoid a shutdown — a move that infuriated the far left. Now, with his political future threatened by growing rumors of a 2028 primary challenge from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Schumer appears willing to drag the country into crisis to appease the socialist wing of his party.

Republicans have branded the stalemate the “Schumer Shutdown,” and the label is already sticking. For a man obsessed with his own political survival, that may be the most damaging headline of all.