Homeland Security Posts Unhinged AI Photo in Post on Immigration
The Department of Homeland Security has been accused of posting an antisemitic dog-whistle to online trolls—and even if that wasn’t the post’s intention, it was certainly the result.
“‘Communist?” DENIED. ‘Terrorist?’ DENIED. ‘Globalist?’ DENIED,” said the post, which included a photograph of an AI-generated “Chad” in a United States Citizenship and Immigration Services hat, complete with Habsburg-like super chin and exceptionally developed trapezius muscles.
Beneath, the account included a link to sign up to be a so-called “Homeland Defender,” the latest in a pathetic series of ploys to attract deportation fanboys to work for the federal government.
Prominent liberal X user Will Stancil claimed that “globalist” was an intentional reference to Jewish people. “This is a smirkingly antisemitic post about Jews, and everyone involved in its creation knows that, as well as the intended audience,” he wrote.
The term “globalist” historically has been used by the far right to refer to a conspiracy theory that Jews control global events, but has more recently been co-opted by others on the right as an alternative to “nationalist.”
But the original meaning remains, and DHS’s latest post certainly caught the attention of the far right. The official account even engaged with users who responded with memes popularized by “groypers,” the followers of neo-Nazi Nick Fuentes.
“Are you TRYING to recruit me Homeland Security Account? Because you have my attention,” wrote one account, including a meme of Pepe the Frog, which has been added to the Anti-Defamation League’s database of hate symbols.
“You know you want to!” the DHS account replied.
Another user using the screen name “RAW EGG NATIONALIST” responded to the DHS’s post with an image of a man smoking a cigar, receiving a call from the “Based Department,” whose caller ID was an image of Pepe the Frog. The DHS account responded, urging the “Patriot” user to call the ICE tip line.
It has never felt more clear that the DHS Office of Public Affairs is staffed with terminally online right-wing trolls.
The GOP has gone fully mask-off as it brings the hammer of austerity down on Democratic voters as punishment for their senators not capitulating to Trump’s funding bill.
“This is what they’re doing. They’re doing it deliberately, it’s going to harm [Democrats],” said Republican Senator Mike Lee, referring to Trump and OMB Director (and Project 2025 mastermind) Russell Vought ripping funding away from blue states, holding crucial projects hostage.
“Because Russ Vought, the OMB director, has been dreaming about this moment—preparing this moment—since puberty,” the Utah senator continued. “Russ Vought has a plan, and that plan is going to succeed in further empowering Trump. This is gonna be the Democrats’ worst nightmare, and it’s of their own making.”
Lee: This is what they're doing, doing it deliberately. It's going to harm them. Russ Vought has been dreaming about this moment since puberty. pic.twitter.com/CubW81cQy0
While it might not have been his dream since puberty (although Vought is filled with enough spite to make that somewhat believable), this slash-and-burn retribution is absolutely all part of the plan.
Trump and Vought have already frozen $18 billion in infrastructure projects in New Jersey and New York, and announced cuts to $8 billion in energy funding from 16 blue states as well. The pressure campaign seems to just be getting started.
“Democrats should know that they put the White House and the president in this position,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said earlier on Thursday. “And if they don’t want further harm on their constituents back home, then they need to reopen the government. It’s very simple: Pass the clean continuing resolution, and all of this goes away.”
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent made an eyebrow-raising claim about the soybean crisis on CNBC’s Squawk Box Thursday.
In recent years, China has consistently been the largest importer of U.S. soybeans, typically purchasing more than half of U.S. soybean exports. Last year, China bought $12.6 billion in American soybeans. But since May, that number has plunged to $0, as China has imposed retaliatory tariffs on American soybeans in response to Trump’s tariffs.
Trump effectively admitted that his trade war was harming American farmers in a Truth Social post Wednesday, in which he said soybean growers “are being hurt because China is, for ‘negotiating’ reasons only, not buying.” (He also unveiled a spin-off to his slogan “MAGA” that wouldn’t fit as easily on a baseball cap: “MAKE SOYBEANS, AND OTHER ROW CROPS, GREAT AGAIN!”)
On Squawk Box Thursday, Bessent blamed America’s ag trade woes on former President Joe Biden. “The Chinese followed through [on agricultural purchases] during President Trump’s term in 2020,” Bessent said. “And then, under President Biden, their feet were not held to the fire for these ag purchases.”
Bessent recalled a purported exchange with a Chinese delegation, led by the country’s top economic official, in May: “When I asked him, ‘Why didn’t you continue buying soybeans and the other products?’ they had one word. Guess what it was. ‘Biden.’”
The claim left the CNBC co-hosts momentarily speechless. “Biden,” Kernen repeated softly, before calling B.S. on Bessent using the © New Republic
