“… they’ve relentlessly posted sadistic memes about policy decisions in the style of social media trends.”
The White House has adopted a new way of communicating: memes. Even if they seem like insults or provocations, their social media posts announce upcoming policies and operations.
In a New York Times report, they say: “If you want to know where Republican politics is heading, look at the memes. Since the start of its second term, the Trump administration and its GOP surrogates have been crashing out online.”
To achieve this, they rely on a sophisticated staff, massive followers, and an audience seeking to “convince” their audience of the fictional world they live in.
“Like an unhinged Zoomer, they’ve relentlessly posted sadistic memes about policy decisions in the style of social media trends. A highlight reel of ICE arrests is set to “Ice Ice Baby.” An A.S.M.R.-style video that features people in shackles boarding a deportation flight. An image of a woman being arrested, rendered in the style of a Hayao Miyazaki movie. The vice president has threatened his critics with deportation via a GIF image. One Republican congressman even suggested that an undocumented migrant be thrown out of a helicopter, Pinochet style. Faced with criticism over one such taunting post, Kaelan Dorr, a White House press aide, announced: “The arrests will continue. The memes will continue.” mentions the Times.
And The Times continues…
“It’s a style of politics that has been honored by the party’s young, extremist fringes for years. With Mr. Trump’s blessing, or indifference perhaps, this faction is emerging as one of the most influential forces in the party. These radicalized conservatives, some of whom are working as junior staff members and political operatives across the G.O.P., are showing us the future of conservatism, one demented post at a time.”
The key ingredient to this online soup is extremism: from nativism to racial science to casual neo-Nazism and textbook misogyny. Presented to followers via livestreams, memes and X posts, this deluge of far-right content has been called “slopulism” — a vibes-based politics designed for social media and born from social media. These vibes, of course, are harsh. They’re antidemocratic. And they’re increasingly being embodied in the presence of figures staffing the second Trump administration.
And then there’s the case of Paul Ingrassia, the Trump staff member nominated to lead the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, who may be the best example of a conduit between the online right and the White House. Mr. Ingrassia, 30, a former far-right podcaster, has been an outspoken supporter of one of the online right’s most visible figures, Nick Fuentes.
Of the various factions jockeying for influence in the MAGA tent, Mr. Fuentes’s radical youth wing might be the one most responsible for the trolling style infecting conservatism. Caleb Brock, the 24-year-old director of digital strategy for Representative Ro Khanna of California, a Democrat, put it to me this way: “The groyper style is the Republican playbook right now.”
