Welcome to Trump’s America. When he was campaigning for the presidency last year, he constantly used inflammatory language to talk about migrants.
“The United States is now an occupied country,” he declared during one rally in Atlanta, before referring to an upcoming “liberation day.” Many people knew at the time, this “liberation” would bring with it fascism and cruelty. That’s the sort of person Trump is—the first four years of his presidency had the whole world understanding that with agonizing clarity. And yet hatred and division won last year when Trump was voted in again. He even won the popular vote. There is a terrifying sickness in the heart of America right now.
Ever since the convicted felon and rapist took office on January 20, he’s ordered a crackdown on undocumented migrants. But his administration deport people with a sense of glee that feels disgusting. They know that they will face absolutely no consequences for hurting people. Take for example the horrible “Valentine’s Day card” that the White House Instagram put out on February 14. It featured images of Trump featuring Trump and his border czar Tom Homan alongside the words, “Roses are red, violets are blue, come here illegally and we’ll deport you.” It was childish, petty and everything America was never supposed to stand for. Many people expressed their horror in the comments of the post, but there was nothing they could do.
Now the White House has seen fit to post something even worse. Yesterday, February 18th, they co-opted a popular trend to spread their bile. They released a video of migrants being deported in chains, with the caption, “ASMR: Illegal Alien Deportation Flight.”
ASMR, or “Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response” videos are big on YouTube and have been for a good few years now. The videos have audio of soft, gentle sounds, and this is meant to trigger people into feeling a pleasant sensation. The sound of chains being attached to human beings will not make you feel this.
On the official White House X account—X being the sorry remains of Twitter since it was taken over by Elon Musk and turned into a far-right echo chamber —people were surprisingly angry about the video. Even some right-wingers thought it was a step too far. “I’m a conservative and this doesn’t make me feel good,” one person wrote. “If they were criminals, they should be deported. But it doesn’t make me feel good. That’s macabre.”
Others were more vehement. “This is disgusting and really disturbing. Coming from the official WH account. Again, this is where we are now. This is what some folks signed up for,” wrote an X user named Ameen.
A version of the video was also posted on the official ICE X account, and the reactions there were, well, what you would expect from people who follow the official ICE account. ICE captioned the video, “A group of undocumented aliens are flown from Seattle as part of a process to finalize return to their home countries,” causing people in the comments to start foaming at the mouth about them using the term “undocumented” instead of “illegal.”
Elon Musk also got into the action, reposting the White House video with the caption, “Haha Wow.” He himself is an immigrant and one who’s thought to have worked in the United States illegally, yet as one of the richest men in the world he can do whatever he wants. It is, to put it mildly, a truly depressing state of affairs.
Published: Feb 20, 2025 12:20 am