When we think of propaganda, we often think of the World War I posters introduced in our history classes. The government utilized propaganda like the Uncle Sam “I Want You for the U.S. Army” poster, as well as several campaigns targeted toward food rationing and home gardening during the war. However, propaganda is not only a part of the past — it continues to be used, and the current Trump Administration has become the next propaganda machine to fuel its harmful policy.
Propaganda is defined in many ways, and the most widely accepted definition is that of Edward Bernays, who claims that propaganda is a conscious and continuous means of influencing public attitudes about a particular subject. Bernays states that propagandists are the invisible governments that control the public mind, shaping their perceptions and influencing their feelings about the state or event. While this concept was defined in 1928, the notion of propaganda remains prevalent.
To make the comparisons blatantly clear, we can connect the Trump administration’s recent actions to the Russian “firehose of falsehood” propaganda model. According to this model, modern Russian propaganda exhibits four key features — it is characterized by high volume, rapidity, continuity and repetitiveness and lacks commitment to objective reality and consistency. Since his first presidential run, Donald Trump and his administration have relied on high-volume and repetitive partisan fear-mongering that is both detached from reality and statistically inconsistent.
Immigration has been one of the key issues of the Trump administration. Trump is notorious for criminalizing immigrants — referring to them as “illegal monsters,” and “rapists, killers and gang members,” claiming they are “the largest invasion in the history of our country” and “taking your jobs”. These claims have been so repetitive that The Marshall Project analyzed 13 major claims about immigration in over 350,000 of Trump’s public statements — they found he has called immigrants criminals over 575 times, claimed they are stealing public benefits 270 times and justified his mass deportation over 50 times.
This criminalization is not only repeated in Trump’s public addresses — it becomes even more pronounced when one examines the White House’s social media and Trump’s own Truth Social account. On the White House Instagram, there is a constant influx of deportation memes. Some include a nostalgia edit captioned, “life after all criminal aliens are deported,” a “Mean Girls” Oct. 3 meme saying, “It’s October 3rd. A great day for deportations,” and “ASMR: Illegal Deportation Flights.” More recently, there is a Deep fake video mocking senate minority leader Chuck Schumer calling the Democrats “woke pieces of s—t” and house minority leader Hakeem Jeffries with a mustache and sombrero set to Mexican mariachi music.
The video, which played on loop in the White House briefing, is a response to the administration’s claims that the Democrats are the reason for the government shutdown because they are demanding subsidies for unauthorized immigrants as part of the federal government funding. Unsurprisingly, pieces of media — as well as all the ones mentioned above — are completely detached from reality.
The constantly reiterated claim that a majority of immigrants entering the U.S. are criminals, rapists and pedophiles has been disproven, given the fact that 16,523 people are in immigration detention with no criminal records, while 15,725 have criminal charges and 13,767 have pending criminal charges. Pending criminal charges do not make one a criminal — it is an accusation, not proof of guilt — unlike Donald Trump, who was found guilty on 34 felony counts, making him a criminal. Furthermore, the idea that immigrants are stealing benefits has also been dismantled. The reality is that the labor market is absorbing immigrants while maintaining low unemployment for U.S.-born workers. The real issue lies in labor law reform and the establishment of stronger labor standards that ensure all workers have rights in the workplace.
Furthermore, the government did not shut down because Democrats want to give healthcare insurance subsidies to undocumented immigrants. The Democrats want to ensure that funding is not cut for the Americans who rely on the Affordable Care Act subsidies, which immigrants are not eligible for in the first place. They also asked to reverse the addition to the Republican tax bill that removed the health benefits of legal immigrants, refugees with protected status and former DACA individuals.
Although nearly all of Trump’s claims are incorrect, the consistency of these claims across multiple channels increases the likelihood that people will be exposed to the message and perceive it as credible, thereby legitimizing inappropriate government behavior. The White House voicemail right now repeats the Republican narrative of Democrats causing the shutdown because “they care more about funding healthcare for illegal immigrants than they care about serving you.” Not only does this violate the Hatch Act, which prohibits most federal, state and local government employees from engaging in political activity on-duty or in the workplace to protect the public from political coercion, but it is also a blatant tool of propaganda from the playbook of the firehose of falsehood — repetition leads to familiarity, and familiarity leads to acceptance.
The White House and Trump also have this intention of bringing America back during his presidency. However, this is just a technique used to garner legitimacy. Max Weber, a world-renowned political theorist, would describe this as traditional legitimacy, arguing that things being done in the country are valid because it is the way things have always been done. However, this form of legitimacy is based on arbitrary systems that are fundamentally oppressive. Is that the America we want to return to? The administration and its supporters are fabricating a story of the past that never actually existed.
Rejecting Trump’s rhetoric is about defending democratic discourse against a propaganda strategy. Trump intentionally employs techniques such as repeating falsehoods, stoking fears and distorting facts to undermine truth and inclusiveness. As a nation reliant on immigration and built on democratic ideals, we must recognize and refuse to let these propaganda techniques corrode our shared reality.
Grace Harris has a passion for social justice and advocacy. Her email is always open to more ideas — [email protected].
