Meme politics: White House embraces aggressive alt-right online culture

The White House’s social media strategy has taken a sharp turn into the world of internet trolling, adopting a style that blends provocation, meme culture, and outright mockery.

A recent post from the official White House X account featured an AI-generated Ghibli-style animation of a sobbing, handcuffed deportee, sparking outrage over the administration’s flippant approach to immigration enforcement.

It followed a previous post where a video of shackled deportees was set to Closing Time, with Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt joking that the lyrics—"You don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here"—perfectly summed up U.S. immigration policy.

The shift marks a stark evolution in official government communications, embracing tactics long associated with online antagonists and alt-right meme culture.

The ‘4Chanification’ of Politics

Marcus Maloney, a sociology professor at Coventry University, describes this strategy as "the 4Chanification of American politics"—referencing the notorious imageboard where shock value, disinformation, and trolling are used as political weapons.

"If Trump 1.0 embraced the 2016-era alt-right ‘shitposters’ who supported his candidacy, Trump 2.0 is incorporating their methods into official communication channels," Maloney said.

Jacob Neiheisel, a political science professor at the University of Buffalo, noted that the White House’s increasingly aggressive use of memes and irreverent messaging caters to an online audience that thrives on provocation.

"They’re leaning pretty heavily into meme culture and to chronically online individuals," he said. "That’s where a lot of the energy in the MAGA movement is."

Mockery as Policy

The White House’s trolling approach extends beyond memes. A Valentine's Day post read:

"Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
Come here illegally,
And we'll deport you."

White House's Valentine's Day post.White House/Instagram

The card featured floating images of President Donald Trump and his border czar, Tom Homan.

The administration has also likened the sounds of shackled migrants boarding deportation planes to ASMR—a term usually associated with soothing sensory experiences.

For communication experts, this approach raises serious concerns.

Mark Hass, a digital marketing strategist at Arizona State University, argues that this flippant language “hurts the gravitas of the presidency—the world’s most powerful office—and it hurts the perception of it not only domestically but internationally.”

Beyond rhetoric, Maloney sees the White House’s social media tactics as a gateway to more extreme policies.

"It’s a nihilism in respect to how things are communicated," he said. "In terms of what they’re actually doing, it’s a mainstreaming of far-right dream policies."

And according to White House communications official Kaelan Dorr, the provocations won’t stop anytime soon.

"The arrests will continue. The memes will continue," he posted, doubling down on the administration’s defiant stance.