Speaker of the House Mike Johnson has found himself in a curious position in recent days—having to explain President Donald Trump’s federal government shutdown memes to the news media.
“What they’re trying to have fun with, trying to make light of, is to point out the absurdity of the Democrats’ position, and they’re using memes and all the tools of social media to do that,” Johnson, R-La., said of the president’s latest barrage of memes.
Johnson’s remarks followed a late-night Truth Social post from Trump, in which he uploaded an artificial intelligence-generated remix of Blue Öyster Cult’s 1976 Top 40 radio hit “(Don’t Fear) the Reaper.”
“Russ Vought is the reaper. He wields the pen, the funds, and the brain,” the song goes, as AI-generated animation shows the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) director dressed as the Grim Reaper and wielding a scythe in government offices.
Vought is tasked with determining which programs are essential during the shutdown and has used it as an opportunity to pause and slash disfavored programs, such as billions of dollars to fund green energy projects across the country and Chicago infrastructure projects said to involve “race-based contracting.”
The president has previously said that the shutdown is an “unprecedented opportunity” to reshape the government.
But Johnson told reporters that, despite Trump’s jokes, Republicans in the executive branch view their shutdown role as a solemn responsibility.
“Some people find that entertaining. But at the end of the day, the decisions are hard ones, and I’m telling you, they’re not taking any pleasure in that,” the speaker said.
“Russ wants to see a smaller, more efficient, more lean, effective federal government as we do. He doesn’t want people to lose jobs. He doesn’t want to do that. But he has—that’s his responsibility,” Johnson said of the OMB director. “So, he’s very carefully, methodically, very deliberately looking through them, to see which decisions can be made in the best interest of the American people. That’s his obligation, and that’s his real desire.”
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