You might have come across a pink digital Valentine’s Day card this month on your X or Instagram timelines that featured the floating heads of President Trump and the new U.S. border czar, Tom Homan. In the form of a love poem, it delivered a warning to undocumented immigrants.
“Roses are red, violets are blue, come here illegally and we’ll deport you,” read the seemingly cheery message with tiny hearts scattered across.
It seemed like a meme posted by a parody account, or something from a messaging forum like 4chan or Reddit. But the post was actually shared by the official social media accounts of the White House on Feb. 14, and it has been viewed by millions. The message was well received by many of Mr. Trump’s fans, or was at least a form of internet language they understand well. Other commenters were disturbed by its callousness.
Since Mr. Trump took office in January, the official social media accounts of his administration have delivered several posts referencing the deportation of undocumented people that appear to have the same tone as playful memes and other popular social media trends. While this isn’t the first presidential administration to use internet lingo as part of its social media strategy, Mr. Trump’s repeated use of it is a departure from previous administrations, and reinforces his belief in his expansive power to reshape all aspects of the government.
“President Trump is committed to using every direct line of communication to the American people,” Harrison Fields, a White House spokesman, said in a statement that emphasized Mr. Trump’s embrace of various social media platforms.
In a post on Tuesday, the official White House account on X shared a video of a person in handcuffs preparing to board a plane, which was captioned “ASMR: Illegal Alien Deportation Flight.” The caption was a reference to Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response videos, which are widely popular online for delivering pleasant sounds that create positive and therapeutic sensations for many.
“When you think about A.S.M.R. and the type of people who are watching those videos, it is a thing that people go to to be soothed,” said Amanda Brennan, an internet meme librarian and former head of editorial at Tumblr.
But there is nothing conventionally soothing about the notion of being locked in chains.
A day later, the official White House account on Instagram shared a post of an illustration of Mr. Trump wearing a crown on a magazine cover resembling Time. Its caption, which had originally appeared as a message from Mr. Trump’s Truth Social account, read: “CONGESTION PRICING IS DEAD. Manhattan, and all of New York, is SAVED. LONG LIVE THE KING.”
The image and text likened Mr. Trump to royalty and served as a follow-up message to his plan to halt the congestion pricing program that was recently implemented in New York City.
According to Ms. Brennan, a social-media strategy of embracing internet speak in a “lighthearted” manner was being adopted by official government accounts in a “sinister way” to speak to alt-right and MAGA audiences.
“It feels like the person in power is using the language of the less empowered to spread their message as a way to say, ‘Oh I’m just like you, I like A.S.M.R.’” she said. “The meaning and the heart of why people show up to those communities is ripped out.”
Last month, Meta announced that it would end its program of fact-checking social media posts on Facebook, Threads and Instagram, which was said to please Mr. Trump and his allies at the time. The website X, under the ownership of Elon Musk, a top aide to Mr. Trump, has also strayed from many of its original trust and safety policies.
The posts have been a hit with many of Mr. Trump’s supporters, some of whom doubled down on the message board-like memes with a reaction of “kek,” which is used on 4chan as a replacement for “lol.” But the posts have also enraged many others, and Ms. Brennan said that whether or not the White House’s strategy is to incite rage with its social media posts, their content, along with certain companies’ looser policies, may result in many platforms (and the trends that are born out of them) not feeling as safe as they once did.
The questions to ask, she said, include “how are the algorithms affecting this?”
“How much are the algorithms affecting how much it’s being seen and who it’s being shown to?” she continued. “How are tech companies allowing this?”
