Republicans are scrambling to downplay just how much enjoyment President Donald Trump is evidently extracting from preparations to fire federal workers by the thousands amid the government shutdown.

Speaking at a press conference Friday about Trump’s plans to make massive cuts to essential programs amid the government shutdown, House Speaker Mike Johnson admitted that the president was “trolling” Democrats. But at the same time, Johnson claimed that Trump and White House Budget Director Russell Vought took “no pleasure” in making the cuts.

“Now, are they taking great pleasure in that? No. Is [Trump] trolling the Democrats? Yes. I mean, yes! Because that’s what President Trump does, and people are having fun with this,” Johnson said, likely referring to the trough of (often racist) AI slop the president has offered up to mock Democrats in the wake of the government shutdown.

Fox News congressional correspondent Chad Pergram pressed the speaker on his claim. “Square something for me. How can you say, ‘They take no pleasure in this,’ and then the next minute say, ‘Oh, they’re just having fun and trolling people?’” he asked.

“So, the effects are very serious on real people, real Americans. We support federal employees who do a great job in all these different areas. But what they’re trying to have fun with, trying to make light of, is to point out the absurdity of the Democrats’ position,” Johnson said. “And they’re using memes and all the, you know, tools of social media to do that. Some people find that entertaining. But at the end of the day the decisions are hard ones, and I tell you they’re not taking any pleasure in that.”

Earlier this week, Johnson admitted that Trump’s posting was “not [his] style,” and seemed to agree with a Democratic colleague that the president had become “unhinged.”

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt also struggled Friday to downplay how much fun Trump was having in the supposedly uncomfortable positions Democrats had put him in. “Democrats have given this administration an unenviable choice to have to take a look at the balance sheet and identify where these cuts and layoffs can be made,” Leavitt said.

ABC’s Mary Bruce hit back at Leavitt’s claim, pointing out that the president had described the shutdown as an “unprecedented opportunity” to lay off additional federal workers, and gleefully posted a pathetic parody video to Truth Social comparing Vought to the Grim Reaper.

“So which is this,” Bruce asked. “Is this an opportunity to fire more workers, or an unfortunate consequence?”

“Look, the president likes to have a little fun every now and then, and I think both things can be true at the same time,” Leavitt replied. “The Democrats have given the administration this opportunity, and we don’t like laying people off, nobody takes joy in that around here. And if you think that, then I think that’s very sad, you view the White House and our staff as wanting to put people out of work. Nobody wants to do that, but sometimes in government you have to make tough decisions.”

Of course, the Democrats aren’t forcing Trump to lay off federal workers. In fact, during the last shutdown in 2018, under Trump’s first administration, he did not make sweeping cuts to the federal workforce.

This time around, he’s using funding to essential programs and agencies as a political lever to intimidate Democratic lawmakers, while manifesting Vought’s dreams of downsizing the government. It’s worth noting that Trump’s not the only one having fun: the Republican Party has made it clear they are fully on board with the racist memes.

MAGA influencer and conspiracy theorist Jack Posobiec—who helped spread election fraud rumors in Pennsylvania in 2024—has been voting in Pennsylvania for nearly a decade while living in Maryland.

Slate has reported that Posobiec, also of “Pizzagate” fame, voted in Pennsylvania from 2004 to 2024. But when Posobiec resigned from his Navy Intelligence job and “remained” in Maryland in 2017, the same year his political influencing really started to take off, he continued to vote in Pennsylvania via absentee ballots and later in person. Posobiec used his parents’ Pennsylvania home address to vote in the crucial swing state in 2018, 2022, and 2024, all while evidence strongly suggests he lived in Maryland that entire period.

A 2017 divorce complaint from Posobiec’s ex-wife lists a Maryland apartment as his full-time address. Since then, he and his new wife have shared photos of a suburban home in Maryland, which he listed as his address on over a dozen political campaign contributions last year.

“SECURED THE BAG. Just stopped by the county voting board and did the deed—easy and even open on Sunday! Vote Early, Pennsylvania!” Posobiec posted last year.

The overcompensating didn’t stop there.

“Thousands of fraudulent registrations have already been reported in multiple counties across PA and we all saw Josh Shapiro sit silent as officers blocked people from early voting yesterday,” Posobiec wrote that same year.

While Posobiec is yet to be charged with a crime, these findings are yet another addition to the now long history of MAGA hypocrisy. Calling for witch hunts over fake voter fraud while potentially committing real voter fraud encapsulates the movement’s unseriousness.

Just before 8 a.m. on Friday, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was spotted with a film crew on the roof of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview, Illinois, where protesters on the street below were met with aggressive force throughout the morning.

The facility has become a flash point due to its use in the Trump administration’s Operation Midway Blitz in Illinois.

“They’re committing crimes against humanity there,” Kat Abughazaleh, a Democratic U.S. House candidate in Illinois told The New Republic last month, after she was thrown forcefully to the ground by an ICE agent at a protest outside the facility. In recent weeks, many Illinoisans protesting at the center have been tackled, dragged away, tear-gassed, and otherwise menaced by masked federal agents clad in tactical gear.

Social media footage from Friday shows heavily militarized federal law enforcement—including officers with numerous agencies, an

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