About a month into Donald Trump’s second term, the White House used social media to promote a video featuring ICE officials placing immigrants in chains and handcuffs before they’re loaded onto a plane, presumably for deportation. A backlash soon followed, with many observers noting how dehumanizing the display was.
The president, however, loved it, bragging at an event two months later, “That’s what people want to see. ... Good TV. Even the sound, you know. All the others. Very good.”
CNN recently reported that elements of the administration’s deportation agenda were designed to be “camera-ready” and featured a “made-for-TV look.” Soon after, Axios published a related report that Team Trump’s immigration crackdown includes an emphasis on “choreography, photo ops, wardrobe changes and tough talk.” A White House official said the focus on “the visuals” was deliberate. The New York Times added that enforcement efforts surrounding the administration’s immigration policies are packaged “like mini reality-TV shows — complete with perp walks and even guest stars.”
But as the president imposes new controls over Washington, D.C., Reuters reported on the degree to which the administration’s emphasis on “camera-ready” tactics is getting worse.
The White House has dispatched social media teams alongside FBI agents executing arrest warrants in the nation’s capital to generate videos that promote U.S. President Donald Trump’s crackdown on crime in the District of Columbia, according to two people briefed on the matter. The highly unusual arrangement runs afoul of longstanding Justice Department norms which seek to insulate criminal investigations from political influence.
Since Trump’s D.C. power grab, a variety of unsettling online videos have garnered attention. Some have been filmed by regular people — including one in which a masked federal agent said “liberals” ruined the country — and another in which an agent praised the Proud Boys, a right-wing extremist group.
There’s also a video of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents tearing down a handmade sign with a message they didn’t like — a move the agency was eager to promote, as if this were legal and worth celebrating.
But just as notable was a video the White House itself released that showed what transpired when Sean Charles Dunn (a military veteran and former Justice Department lawyer better known as the “sandwich guy”) was taken into custody after he threw a sub at a federal agent.
The video was certainly upsetting because of the size of the armed contingent that showed up at this guy’s home, especially given the nature of his alleged crime, but let’s not lose sight of the larger context: Reuters’ report, which has not been independently verified by MSNBC or NBC News, added that the video was taken “by a social media team sent by the White House” that accompanied the armed agents.
If the reporting is accurate, it reinforces impressions that Trump and his team aren’t just taking over the nation’s capital, they’re also putting on a show, to be exploited for online clicks, views and likes.
Officials in the Trump White House are focused less on leading the executive branch of a global superpower and more on succeeding as a theater troupe that’s principally concerned with putting on a good show.
This post updates our related earlier coverage.
This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
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