When Donald Trump posted during his first term on what was then called Twitter, his attacks and rants differed significantly from US federal agency staff’s more cautious and traditional approach on social media.
For example, in January 2017, in response to scrutiny of one of the president’s executive orders, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) posted: “We are & will remain in compliance with judicial orders. We are & will continue to enforce @POTUS’s EO humanely and with professionalism.”
Meanwhile, Trump posted: “The FAKE NEWS media (failing @nytimes, @NBCNews, @ABC, @CBS, @CNN) is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American People!”
These days? There is little, if any, space between the incendiary nature of the US president’s posts and, for instance, Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) memes and videos promoting its deportation efforts.
Much of the federal bureaucracy is also now deliberately provocative on social media, using memes and humor and insults. That coordination of style between Trump and the agencies that carry out his policies further inflames public discourse on serious issues, according to people who study the relationship between political speech and technology.
“It’s an acceleration and escalation of what was done because now the official take of these agencies is to propagandize, is to disinform, is to lie and is to polarize,” said Ramesh Srinivasan, professor of information studies at University of California, Los Angeles. “That wasn’t necessarily official state policy or messaging in the first administration because there were far fewer yes men, or in the case of [the DHS secretary,] Kristi Noem, yes women.”
Posts that illustrate this trend from Trump’s second term include the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, facing scrutiny over a strike killing survivors of a US attack, posting an image depicting a beloved children’s character aiming a rocket launcher at a cluster of boats; the White House account playing on the ASMR trend by sharing a video that featured the sounds of chains, with people about to be deported in handcuffs; and a recent run of Christmas-themed posts from DHS and ICE.
“YOU’RE GOING HO HO HOME,” reads text from a DHS post on X that features images of officers with guns, wearing camouflage, face shields – and Santa hats. They also feature a Christmas tree and a riot shield with the words, “Merry Christmas.”
Such posts are reminiscent of propaganda from authoritarian regimes, Srinivasan said.
He cited the Rwanda genocide, where Hutus promoted the slaughter of Tutsis by describing them as “cockroaches” on radio broadcasts, and the Myanmar genocide, where the regime used Facebook to incite violence against Rohingya Muslims. (An independent group commissioned by Facebook determined the platform had “become a means for those seeking to spread hate and cause harm, and posts have been linked to offline violence”.)
Unlike radio, which just broadcasts messages, users inhabit social media and see content based on data gathered about them, Srinivasan said.
“It empowers these platforms to target you on a psychological level,” Srinivasan said
And while the governments have different aims, the common idea is to “divide and conquer”, said Srinivasan. They use “amplification, virality, rumors and lies to make subhuman whatever population they choose”.
DHS this week launched a website titled “ARRESTED: WORST OF THE WORST.”
“ICE Arrests Worst of the Worst Criminal Illegal Aliens Including Pedophiles, Armed Robbers, and Drug Traffickers,” Karoline Leavitt, White House press secretary, posted on social media with a link to the website.
ICE data shows, however, that most people the agency has arrested or detained did not have criminal records.
But such social media posts make some people more accepting of “dehumanizing acts on” the immigrants “up to and including violence”, said Kurt Braddock, American University assistant professor of public communication.
The government also uses “rage bait” to excite Trump’s supporters and troll those who disagree with them, said Joan Donovan, assistant professor of journalism and emerging media studies at Boston University. (Oxford University Press declared rage bait its 2025 word of the year.)
“It is fulfilling the Trump agenda of upsetting and calling attention to these issues so that other politicians will comment on it and hopefully it will become a newsworthy story,” Donovan said. “It shows up in the newspaper; it’s reported on television, and so there is a bit of a shock and awe campaign.”
By having it appear on television, that also makes the messaging more likely to reach and please Trump, who consumes lots of broadcast news, Donovan pointed out.
Meanwhile, such posts can make opponents of the Trump administration feel like there is no point in trying to resist such actions, Srinivasan said.
“The idea is to put out content that is incredibly inflammatory. That works extremely well with the algorithms,” Srinivasan said. “You put material out that seems to be from the state” which makes people think, Hhow do I even stop the state? That is the powerless feeling people have”.
Some Americans see the Christmas posts as especially offensive.
“It is profoundly disturbing to see AI-generated Christmas imagery used in a social media campaign to promote anti-immigrant rhetoric,” Jeremy Weitz, communications director for the Catholic Legal Immigration Network, stated in an email to the Guardian. “Co-opting this sacred season for such purposes is not only wrong, it is utterly contrary to the meaning of advent and Christmas. This is the time when Christians honor the Holy Family, who themselves were migrants seeking refuge.”
When asked about the motivation for such posts and the criticism that they do not reflect Christian values, the DHS assistant secretary, Tricia McLaughlin, stated in an email: “[The] DHS will continue using every tool at its disposal to keep the American people informed as our agents work to Make America Safe Again.”
Jackson Lahmeyer, founder of the Pastors for Trump organization, said “HO HO HOME” is just trolling, which the “Trump administration has done all throughout this first year, not just Christmas time”.
“I greatly support what our ICE agents and our law enforcement are doing in regards to removing criminals and protecting American citizens,” said Lahmeyer, an Oklahoma evangelical pastor.
Some other places do treat social media differently.
This month, the EU fined X, owned by Elon Musk, €120m for violating its Digital Services Act, which requires tech companies to provide a public list of advertisers to ensure that the corporation’ structures guard against scams, fake advertisements and coordinated campaigns around political elections.
Germany also has laws to prevent hate speech on social media.
And there are also different norms around political speech outside the United States, Donovan said.
“In other countries, politicians, for the most part, don’t behave in this way,” Donovan said. “And if they do, it’s because they are learning from US politicians that it gets headlines and it gets results.”
