“It’s 4chan s**t": The govt's deranged social media presence
"You see Trump administration accounts that look like they’re literally run by Groypers," Charlie Warzel tells us.
Public Notice is supported by paid subscribers. Become one ⬇️
It’s safe to say that when the president of the United States is posting an AI-generated video of him dropping feces on Americans from a fighter jet, something is wrong.
But, as we all know, something has been wrong for a long time.
Trump’s use of social media has always been disturbing and bizarre, even if it feels like things have gotten worse over time. Now, however, he’s remaking government social media accounts in his own deranged image.
Consider this recent Department of Homeland Security tweet that characterizes immigrants as a plague to be destroyed by ICE.
Or observe how the Department of Labor has recently been spreading full on “Defend the Fatherland” propaganda.
To get some expert insight into Trump’s online radicalization and how that’s reflected in the federal government’s Nazi bar social media presence, we connected with Atlantic staff writer Charlie Warzel, who wrote about these issues earlier this year in a piece about the “gleeful cruelty of the White House X account.”
“Now you see Trump administration accounts that look like they’re literally run by Groypers,” Warzel told us. “What Homeland Security is tweeting out isn’t even dog-whistling anymore. They’re posting memes that look like old 1950s Coke commercials and say things like, ‘We’ve got to return.’”
“It’s 4chan shit.”
The full conversation between Warzel and Public Notice contributor Thor Benson, lightly edited for length and clarity, follows.
Thor Benson
How have you seen Trump’s social media presence change over time?
Charlie Warzel
I’ve thought a lot about this, and I think the biggest change was him getting banned from a bunch of platforms after January 6.
Trump got big on social media during The Apprentice era. He tweeted about Diet Coke. He was a curiosity. It felt, at times, relatively harmless. He would veer into things like birtherism, but he still found a way to become part of popular culture and stay relevant. And then he started having political aspirations.
Once Trump became president, he got more aggressive. He tweeted to provoke Kim Jong Un. He used Twitter to announce policies. He talked about how we were gonna bomb Iran.
With January 6 he flew too close to the sun. All those platforms were looking for reasons to rid themselves of the liability of Trump, and they took the opportunity. A lot of people, myself included, thought it was going to be really hard for him to come back from that.
He needed this thing. He excelled by having access to this huge swath of journalists on Twitter. He was going to be cast out. And then he launched Truth Social and it was like, “Oh my God, this is so embarrassing. You sold out.”
Truth Social seemed like it was going to be an echo chamber that didn’t do anything for him. Trump ended up getting even more radicalized while he was in exile at Mar-a-Lago on that platform, marinating in memes. His posts got more unhinged. He got more into QAnon and reposted white supremacist accounts, anti-vax stuff.
Now you see Trump administration accounts that look like they’re literally run by Groypers. What Homeland Security is tweeting out isn’t even dog-whistling anymore. They’re posting memes that resemble old 1950s Coke commercials and say things like, “We’ve got to return.”
It’s 4chan shit.
Thor Benson
Do people start experiencing brain rot after too much exposure to extremism?
Charlie Warzel