A wave of posts draws scrutiny in Minneapolis crackdown
As the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in Minneapolis intensified, critics focused on how the White House and agencies described the effort online—arguing that some messaging borrows from imagery and phrases familiar to far-right and white supremacist groups.
In an Associated Press review of administration posts, the scrutiny centered on a burst of social media imagery and slogans that users on social media compared to extremist references, including Nazi-era wording and far-right internet memes, even as the administration disputed those characterizations.
DHS, Department of Labor posts trigger extremist comparisons
On Jan. 9—two days after a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent’s shooting of Renee Good— the Department of Homeland Security posted an image of a man on a horse riding through a snowy, mountainous landscape with the words “We’ll have our home again.”
The AP review said that phrase is the chorus to a song about ousting a foreign presence that has been used by the Proud Boys and other far-right and white supremacist groups.
The next day, the Department of Labor posted on X: “One Homeland. One People. One Heritage. Remember who you are, American.”
Several Trump critics on X drew a parallel between that wording and the Nazi slogan “One People, One Realm, One Leader.”
White House meme referenced in Greenland pressure campaign
The AP review also pointed to another administration post tied to President Donald Trump’s pressure campaign to claim Greenland. The White House posted on X an image of a dog sled facing a fork in the trail—one path leading to symbols associated with the United States and another leading to the Russian and Chinese flags—with the phrase “Which way, Greenland Man?”
The AP review said the post referred to a meme riffing off the title of a white supremacist book, “Which Way Western Man?” It also said the administration had used a similar framing in an Immigration and Customs Enforcement recruiting post asking, “Which way, American Man?”
Administration says critics are making the wrong link
White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson pushed back on the comparisons to Nazi slogans. She said: “It seems that the mainstream media has become a meme of their own: The deranged leftist who claims everything they dislike must be Nazi propaganda,” adding, “This line of attack is boring and tired. Get a grip.”
DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin also disputed the criticism, saying of the “We’ll have our home again” post that it “was a reference to 20-plus million illegal aliens invading the country.” She added, “I don’t know where you guys are getting this stuff, but it is absurd.”
Critic: imagery choice signals intent, not accident
César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández, a law professor at Ohio State University, said the references were a choice rather than a misunderstanding. He said: “You don’t have to dip into white supremacist sloganeering to promote immigration regulation.”
García Hernández said the administration appears to calibrate its messaging. “The imagery is not simply a reproduction of common white supremacist imagery or text, but a play on that imagery — and that gives them the breathing room they want,” he said.
Dispute plays out alongside broader debate over Trump’s rhetoric
The AP review described how Trump’s immigration policy and rhetoric have intersected with the interests of white supremacist groups, even as critics and supporters dispute what messaging meanings are intended. It noted that Trump won his second term with support that included Latino voters and that his campaign included pledges of tough border enforcement and mass deportations.
The review also recounted past comments by Trump, including that he said immigrants were “poisoning the blood of our country,” and earlier remarks in which he referred to “shithole countries” and questioned why the U.S. does not draw more people from Norway, as well as an account that he called Somali immigrants “garbage” last month.
The AP review said Trump changed immigration policy to exclude refugees except for white South Africans, a decision the article said Trump framed as connected to claims of discrimination there.
Musk reposted “white solidarity,” SPLC tracks online signaling
The AP review said Elon Musk recirculated on X a user post calling for “white solidarity” to prevent the mass murder of white men and included a “100” emoji indicating agreement.
It also said that in the aftermath of the Renee Good shooting, a sign on Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem’s lectern reading “One Of Ours, All Of Yours” drew widespread attention online, with commentators suggesting it was a Nazi phrase. The AP review said the Southern Poverty Law Center could not trace the phrase to any Nazi slogan.
In response, McLaughlin said the phrase was tied to the press conference subject. She wrote in an email that it was “a CBP officer who was shot — he was one of our officers and all of the country’s federal law enforcement officer.”
Hannah Gais, a senior researcher with the SPLC, said she believed the administration was aware of how the posts would be received online. She said: “They know their base is this overly online right-winger who they know will go nuts if they say ‘Which Way, Western Man?’”
Gais added: “I don’t think it’s a tenable strategy for the long term because the stuff is incomprehensible to most people. And if it is comprehensible, people don’t like it.”