An analysis of public communications from Donald Trump's US government has identified a recurring pattern of using slogans and imagery with direct links to white nationalist movements. What began with ambiguous signals during his first term has, since his unexpected return to office, evolved into a series of explicit messages that experts say are too frequent to be coincidental.
A Catalogue of Coded Messaging
The pattern became evident in July, when the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) posted a painting of white homesteaders during America's Westward expansion, accompanied by the text: "Remember your Homeland's Heritage." This was swiftly followed by another tweet stating "A Heritage to be proud of, a Homeland worth Defending," paired with John Gast's painting "American Progress"—a work symbolising the controversial doctrine of "manifest destiny" used to justify the displacement of Native Americans.
In August, the DHS account posted a recruitment advert for ICE agents asking "Which way, American man?" This phrase is a clear reference to the title of a 1978 book by neo-Nazi William Gayley Simpson, "Which Way, Western Man?" The book contains passages endorsing Hitler and calling for violence against Jewish people.
From Nativist Slogans to Nazi Echoes
The rhetoric escalated in October with a DHS tweet proclaiming "America for Americans. We are asleep no longer." This phrase has a long history with America's nativist movement and was adopted in the 1920s by white supremacist groups like the Ku Klux Klan.
Perhaps the most stark example emerged in January, when the Department of Labour posted a video on Twitter with the slogan "One Homeland. One People. One Heritage." Observers were quick to note its chilling resemblance to the Nazi slogan "Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer" (One People, One Realm, One Leader). Another ICE recruitment ad featured the phrase "We'll have our home again," the title of an anthem popular within the white nationalist Mannerbund movement and used by groups like the Proud Boys.
Messaging from the Top
The trend has not been confined to government departments. The White House itself posted an AI-generated meme in January featuring two dogsleds at a crossroads, with the caption "Which way, Greenland man?" This was another direct nod to William Gayley Simpson's racist book, signalling an adoption of this rhetoric at the highest levels of the administration.
While some instances, like a recent podium slogan reading "One of ours, all of yours" used by Kristi Noem, may not have definitive Nazi origins, the cumulative weight of evidence points to a deliberate strategy. The messaging, widely believed to be orchestrated by Trump's advisor Stephen Miller, moves beyond ambiguous dog whistles to the outright use of phrases with established ties to historical racism and white supremacy.
