A White House feed flooded with taunts of opponents and beatification of its allies. An F.C.C. chairman using a GIF to answer a question from the news media. An F.B.I. director who posts potential evidence from a shooting and news of a high-profile arrest on X.
During the first nine months of Donald J. Trump’s extremely online administration, the president’s always-be-posting style has been adopted and echoed by a coterie of top aides who have embraced online tactics, replacing longstanding governmental norms with ones native to the internet.
That includes a steady stream of trolling, memes and A.I.-generated images from officials and on government websites, including what they called A.S.M.R. videos of prisoners in chains, Ghiblified cartoons of the administration’s deportation efforts, and a repost of an “Apocalypse Now” inspired image suggesting the president would wage a “war” in Chicago.
In the last month alone, that brash and sometimes casual social media attitude has ricocheted through the national debate on an almost daily basis, including the federal budget negotiations, during which both Mr. Trump and the White House have posted A.I.-generated images depicting Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York with a mustache and a sombrero, which Mr. Jeffries said was racist.
Similar gibes have also suffused messages from formerly staid agencies like the Federal Communications Commission, where its chairman, Brendan Carr, offered up smiling Jack Nicholson GIFs and clips from “The Office” to celebrate late night television host Jimmy Kimmel’s temporary suspension; the Department of Homeland Security, with its Pokemon-themed video and a “Mean Girl” meme to promote deportation efforts; and the F.B.I., where its director, Kash Patel, recently used his feed to post a series of watermelon emojis to mock Senator Adam Schiff of California, calling back to Mr. Trump’s remarks on the senator’s looks.
“They’re aggressive and loud and constantly on the attack,” said Hamilton Nolan, a journalist who recently wrote about the phenomenon on Substack, adding, “It’s like turning the entire government into a message board argument.”
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The post For Trump’s Aides and Officials, the Battle Online Is Always On appeared first on New York Times.
