Jeffries’s departure from Schumer and Pelosi on shutdown approach thrusts him into spotlight

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) is eyeing the drama around the government shutdown as a chance to amplify his name in national politics.

Jeffries, the least powerful of the four Congressional leaders, suffers from a lack of visibility — a recent Pew poll found that 45% of voters don’t know who he is, compared to just 3% who didn’t know his predecessor when she stepped down. He appears to be consciously positioning himself to counter this issue, adopting a more aggressive approach to force confrontations with President Donald Trump, thereby raising his national prestige.

Jeffries went on the offensive after Trump trolled him on Truth Social, showing an AI video depicting him in a mustache and sombrero. At the same time, Schumer bemoans their loss

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