'Your mama didn't raise you like that': Steele shreds MAGA for cheering racist Trump video

Former Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele on MSNBC on May 15, 2025 (Image: Screengrab via MSNBC / YouTube)

President Donald Trump is continuing to double down on an AI-created video posted to official White House social media channels that has been widely panned as racist. And one former Republican Party leader is chastising his fellow conservatives for egging it on.

The video in question shows House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) standing outside of the White House earlier this week. Jeffries is seen with a crudely drawn-on sombrero and curly mustache while mariachi music plays in the background. A deepfake imitation of Schumer's voice is heard complaining that "even Black people" won't vote for Democrats anymore because of "woke trans bulls——."

During a Thursday segment on his MSNBC show "The Weeknight," Michael Steele — who is a former chairman of the Republican National Committee — slammed members of his former party for liking and sharing the video.

"Look at it this way: If they had chosen two other ethnic groups to do that with. What would the reaction be?" Steele said. "And I put it that way because the Hispanic and the African American community have been, for a lot of folks in this particular universe, this MAGA-verse, an easy target."

"Trump does this because his people like it. They feed off of this. They take it, and then they re-send it," he continued. "He does it because he think it upsets the 'woke left,' or Republicans like me who actually give a damn about civil rights and find it offensive, not just as a Black man, but as an American. Because it is beneath contempt."

As the government shutdown drags on into its third day, Trump has continued to promise posting the AI video of Jeffries and Schumer every day. The official White House X account wrote Thursday: "We weren't kidding... DEMOCRAT SHUTDOWN" with a repost of the video. White House officials have also set up screens in the White House briefing room playing the video on a loop. Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-Pa.) called on House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) to confront Trump about the video, though the speaker downplayed the significance of it and said the racist video "isn't my style."

"I think it’s funny. The president’s joking and we’re having a good time. You can negotiate in good faith while also making a little bit of fun at some of the absurdities of the Democrats’ positions, and even poking some fun at the absurdity of themselves," Vice President JD Vance said of the video.

Steele challenged Republicans to rise above the knee-jerk desire to elevate the video, and to instead respect the humanity of people with whom they disagree.

"It's easy to slap a sombrero on your Black head and put it out there and have people laugh at it and make fun of it. And that's the part that we need to check as Americans," he said. "You shouldn't be retweeting this stuff. You shouldn't be finding it amusing. Because it isn't, and you know it isn't. Your mama didn't raise you like that."

Watch the segment below:

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

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