February 20, 2025 - 7:10pm
We are waist-deep in the “Own the Libs” era and it’s embarrassing. Or, put another way, it’s “cringe”.
The latest example is an official White House post on X labelling a deportation video “ASMR: Illegal Alien Deportation Flight”. ASMR, of course, being a reference to a video format popular on YouTube and TikTok, which emphasises soothing sounds. The implication here is that the sounds of the clinking chains or the sombre steps of a deported immigrant are relaxing. Pleasurable, even. Our nation’s First Redditor, Elon Musk, naturally responded with gleeful approval, commenting: “Haha wow”.
This is not about “restoring normalcy”. The Trump administration is winking at the audience, daring liberals to call them fascist or accuse them of inhumanity. They want that response. And frankly, the spectacle of these administrative manoeuvres appears to matter more than the policies themselves, at least for now. The administration approaches policy-making like entertainment.
It’s worth remembering though, that in contrast, other administrations were more muted, even as they enacted, in some cases, stricter policies. Former president Barack Obama, although critics dubbed him “Deporter-in-Chief”, consistently focused on targeting “felons, not families“. George W. Bush pushed for stronger border security too, though with much more empathetic language. Both presidents implemented tough measures and accepted the moral weight of their decisions by using careful rhetoric. One could argue that the Trump administration is “grittier”, more “real”, doing away with decorum. One could also argue that decorum or “realness” aside, provocation is far too much of a priority.
Something worth noting is that this really isn’t about policy: it’s about pageantry. Deportations under Trump’s first term were lower than the peak levels seen under Obama or Clinton. This fact raises serious questions about whether the administration’s primary aim is to enforce a tougher immigration policy or to be provocative. One wonders whether the objective is to improve border security or to generate endless viral Substack posts and X threads decrying the administration’s alleged inhumanity.
It doesn’t end at the ASMR gaffe either. Elon Musk’s DOGE, itself a worthwhile endeavour, has been overwrought with meme-laden messaging while Vice President J.D. Vance, though much more defensibly, has been responding to prominent Right-wing anons on. And shortly after the ASMR video, Trump posted an image of him wearing a crown with the caption “CONGESTION PRICING IS DEAD. Manhattan, and all of New York, is SAVED. LONG LIVE THE KING!” Again, this at best reads as a deliberate provocation, daring his adversaries to accuse him of veering into authoritarianism, even if he isn’t. Why? And to what end?
As philosopher Justin Smith-Ruiu has recently observed, this trend is indicative of the broader incursion of social media discourse into global politics. Smith-Ruiu argues that we have exited the “Tumblr regime”, characterised by performative social justice (performative empathy) and have entered “the 4chan regime,” or one that uses performative, shock-jock cruelty.
Sadly, the hard work of building consensus, addressing nuanced issues, and implementing effective reforms gets lost in the constant pursuit of the next viral moment. It is a move away from serious statecraft and towards a culture in which every decision is a chance to create content. Indeed all influencers who overstay their welcome eventually become lolcows — something Trump will likely learn the hard way.
Katherine Dee is a writer. To read more of her work, visit defaultfriend.substack.com.
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SubscribeI was surprised to read that the author, Katherine Dee, was a writer. Nothing more, nothing less. Just a writer. I hope she has a side gig.
There appears to be the beginnings of a campaign to try to smear the Trump administration as it carries out what DT said he would do, and for which he was duly elected.
For many years now, liberal progressives have been sneering at those who disagree with them, and now they’re sneering at those who’ve usurped them. I don’t think they know how to do anything else.
“Memeing too hard?” Aww, diddums.
Trump has already reached the point where some of his voters are beginning to have second thoughts. Just four or five weeks into his term.
If history is any guide at all, the midterm elections are extremely important to his plans. If the Dems take back one or, G*d forbid, both houses of Congress he’ll never accomplish even half of what we want him to.
The American voters won’t support a recklessly, gratuitously cruel leader. So, right now, someone needs to teach him when to soften his blows and maybe even show a little sympathy.
We need to try to create a ‘Friends Reunited regime’ instead
In the end, for all Trump’s plans and policy, he’s just a human being, and a very touchy, vindictive one at that. He’s been vilified harder than any politico in US – or world? – history and with the chance to punch back, expect more of same for the entire term.
Sure, it interferes with policy implementation and diplomacy, but Trump’s gonna Trump.
Not sure about your “vilified” point. The British Left blames Margaret Thatcher for every bad thing that happens, despite the fact that she has been out of power for 35 years, and dead for 12. Will Trump be like that?
Exactly so.
Using these memes indicates merely that the Trump team understands that this is the best way to influence future thinking and behaviour . This complements any policy initiatives – as opposed to undermining them.
The Alliance fur Deutschland, that new nationalist lot, are proving innovators by using AI for propaganda. The downside is that such strategy appeals only to a dumbed-down mass market, much like US policymaking since January.
If you gave AI the task of generating propaganda for that lot, it would probably give you footage of the Nuremberg Rally.
Diddums
Very good, Katherine. It’s completely undignified.
“Sadly, the hard work of building consensus, addressing nuanced issues, and implementing effective reforms”
Mere weasel words.
“Dialogue is needed” – I want the opportunity to impose my view. There no possibility that talking to you is going to change my mind in any way at all.
“Consensus” – You have to agree to do what I want because my position is not going to change an inch.
“Nuanced issues” – Every time you address one of my objections I will raise another one until you realise that I am going to throw every possible obstacle in the way of your achieving your objectives, even if you were elected on the basis of those objectives.
“Effective reforms” – Reforms that wholly fail to achieve the desired objectives because they were designed to ensure that the objectives were unachievable, and more fool you for allowing yourself to be compromised
It might be less of a problem if progressive weren’t so easy to own. Go to the Washington Post or the New York Times and its hair on fire hysteria every time the administration does anything. Every article is about some upcoming disaster about to happen because of Trump, recession, inflation, both at the same time, measles outbreaks, planes falling out of the sky and the imminent arrest of every liberal journalist in the nation. And that is just the paper; the comment sections read like an insane asylum filled with paranoid schizophrenics.
The Trump administration knows that as long as Democrats are acting as if it is the end of the world as we know it they won’t fix their toxic brand and will double down on the idiotic ideas that lost them the 2024 election.
The key to stopping illegal immigration is making it clear to would-be illegal immigrants that they will never be allowed to stay. That is why deportation TikToks are so important.
Radical government TRANSPARENCY and comprehensive OPENNESS are jarring to the embedded apparatchiks and ossified bureaucracies. Get over it.
“Sunlight is the best disinfectant.” – Louis Brandeis, Supreme Court Justice, 1916 to 1939.