As society continues to shift away from the legacy media, social media becomes our dominant way of staying informed. Starting with the Obama administration, the United States government has used X (formerly known as Twitter), to communicate with the citizens and press of the world on what is going on within the government. Under Trump’s first term, nothing changed, but Trump’s second term has shown a shift in how these socials have been used.

Of the government accounts, 4 will be highlighted here: The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), The Department of Labor (DOL), White House, and Department of Interior (trust me, there’s a reason for this). 

The first 2 have picked up increasingly worrying language to promote their activities across the nation, with (DHS) being the blueprint for Trump 2 posting.

In August of 2025, (DHS) posted a recruitment ad and wrote “Which Way, American Man?” While the text and imagery may seem appropriate, given Trump’s focus on patriotism, the quote is actually in reference to white supremacist book “Which Way, Western Man”, written in the 70s by William Gayley Simpson in support of Hitler, among other similar ideologies and conspiracies growing in the Western Hemisphere.

This actually isn’t the last time they’ve referenced this book either, with another post in January coming from the White House’s official account. 

This post about Greenland uses the same language, replacing “American” with “Greenland” from the last usage of this reference. It also has a meme attached to it.

The White House account again has often been used to appeal to broader Americans, like those who enjoy music and video games, most recently making a post for Trump’s whole milk campaign using an ai generated picture from hit American indie game ‘Stardew Valley,’ with the caption “Whole milk is back.”

The (DHS) also posted this lone image below and caption as another ICE recruitment ad, with the caption “We’ll Have Our Home Again.” While this could be coincidental, this is nearly identical to ‘By God We’ll Have Our Home Again,’ which is the name of an old white supremacist song.

Arguably the worst offender now is the Department of Labor (DOL), who seems to have the same account admin as the (DHS). As an account that is supposed to promote work and working conditions in America, this may not be what is expected of them to be posting.

On January 10nth, 2026, (DOL) posted the following edit and caption: “One Homeland. One People. One Heritage.”

This caption is notable for being similar to a piece of Nazi propaganda, worded “Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer”, which directly translates to “One people, one empire, one leader.” This was commonly used in WW2 propaganda.

On top of this is the simple phrase “America is for Americans,” posted with an image that includes “Embrace Americanism” within it.

The phrase “America is for Americans”, is a direct quote from Hitler on the Reichstag on January 30th, 1939, saying “America is for Americans, Europe is for Europeans…” but this one may just be coincidence. This is the Department of Labor account we’re talking about though. There is no need for this type of content to be posted, which doesn’t reflect the work of the department.

Luckily, the Department of Interior may be the only Department keeping to traditional posting standards, reposting White House/Trump when they bring up manners related to the Department, and otherwise sticking to Holiday posts, park pictures and improvements.

And some posts about “clean coal” from Secretary Burgum reposted by the Department of Interior account.

The recent trend in government messaging balances youth appeal through meme culture and strained patriotism over traditional messaging. Keeping a standardized and appropriate message that informs the public of what they actually need to know on each account is essential. Ultimately, focus and dissection of online messages are crucial skills to understand politics in current times.