By Chinonyerem Emmanuel
A single social media post from the U.S. Department of Labor has set off a political firestorm, reigniting long-simmering accusations that the Trump administration is flirting with, or outright amplifying, rhetoric and imagery historically associated with extreme right-wing ideologies.
The controversy centers on a video shared Saturday on the department’s official account. The clip features a rapid-fire slideshow of grand, romanticized artwork depicting iconic moments in American history. Looming large in the foreground is a statue of George Washington, lending the montage a solemn, almost mythic tone.
Above the video sat a stark caption:
“One Homeland. One People. One Heritage. Remember who you are, American.”
It didn’t take long for social media users to draw uncomfortable parallels. Critics quickly pointed out similarities in language, cadence and emotional appeal to one of the most infamous slogans of the Nazi Party.
“The US government is posting a version of ‘Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer,’” wrote Terry Virts, a former NASA astronaut and current Democratic congressional candidate, on X. “I don’t see how this ends well.”
The original Nazi slogan — “Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer,” meaning “One People, One Country, One Leader” was, according to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, “one of the central slogans used by Hitler and the Nazi Party.” While the Labor Department’s caption is not a verbatim translation, critics argue that the thematic overlap is difficult to ignore.
Experts caution against rushing to conclusions based on a single post. But many say this episode cannot be viewed in isolation.
“When you look at this one post in the context of all the others, it’s not an accident,” said Bill Braniff, executive director of American University’s Polarization & Extremism Research & Innovation Lab.
Even stripped of historical comparisons, Braniff noted, the message itself raises serious concerns. The notion that Americans share “one heritage,” he said, clashes directly with the country’s history as a nation shaped by immigration and pluralism. It subtly constructs an “in group” and an “out group” a hallmark of extremist ideology.
Jon Lewis, a research fellow at George Washington University’s Program on Extremism, echoed that concern.
“You don’t want to read too much into something that might not be there,” Lewis told CNBC. “But at a certain point, you have to ask how many times until it’s not a coincidence anymore.”
“At that point,” he added later in an email, “you can’t even really call it a dog whistle, it’s just a whistle. How many times will official U.S. government accounts post openly white supremacist-adjacent content without repercussions?”
The Labor Department, led by Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer, did not respond to CNBC’s request for comment. A department spokesperson previously told The Guardian that the campaign was meant “to celebrate American workers and the American Dream.”
That explanation did little to quell backlash from labor leaders.
“It is no surprise that a fascist regime would post fascist propaganda on a fascist social media network like X,” said Puneet Maharaj, executive director of National Nurses United, the nation’s largest nurses’ union. “But it remains deeply concerning to see the DOL making posts that serve a fascist, white supremacist agenda.”
A Pattern, Not a One-Off
The uproar over Labor’s post is only the latest chapter in what critics describe as a growing pattern. In recent weeks, the Trump administration has appeared to double down on messaging that echoes far-right language, symbols and aesthetics.
Earlier this week, ahead of sensitive diplomatic talks related to President Donald Trump’s increasingly aggressive push to acquire Greenland, the White House posted a cartoon, possibly AI-generated, showing two dog sled teams at a crossroads. One path pointed toward the United States, the other toward Russia and China.
“Which way, Greenland man?” read the caption.
Critics immediately connected the phrase to Which Way Western Man?, a 1978 book that defends Hitler and promotes a white nationalist, antisemitic worldview. The book’s author, William Gayley Simpson, was reportedly affiliated with the neo-Nazi group National Alliance.
The phrase has since become a staple in far-right online culture, often used in memes contrasting “decadent” modern society with an idealized vision of tradition.
That White House post wasn’t an anomaly. Five months earlier, the Department of Homeland Security shared an ICE recruitment graphic reading, “Which way, American man?” Assistant DHS Secretary Tricia McLaughlin at the time dismissed reporters’ questions about the post as “embarrassing.”
When pressed about both the Labor and White House posts, White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson brushed off the criticism.
“It seems the mainstream media has become a meme of their own,” she told CNBC, calling critics “deranged” and dismissing Nazi comparisons as “boring and tired.”
The list of controversial posts goes on.
On Jan. 8, the Labor Department shared an image of Trump saluting beneath the words “trust the plan,” a phrase deeply associated with the QAnon conspiracy movement.
Last Friday, DHS posted another ICE recruitment image declaring, “We’ll have our home again,” language critics say echoes a song linked to a neo-Nazi fraternal group, according to the Toronto Holocaust Museum’s Hatepedia.
McLaughlin dismissed concerns over that phrase as “manufactured outrage”, arguing that similar titles exist across poems, songs and books.
But context, critics argue, matters.
The DHS post, featuring a stealth bomber, a cowboy on horseback and a snowy mountain range, came just two days after ICE agent Jonathan Ross fatally shot Renee Nicole Good during an altercation in Minneapolis, further inflaming tensions.
According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, the administration’s shift toward white nationalist-adjacent messaging may have begun last June, when DHS posted a cartoon of Uncle Sam urging Americans to “report all foreign invaders” to ICE.
Despite the controversy, the posts appear to be working, at least in terms of reach. The Labor Department’s video alone has amassed nearly 23 million views on X, possibly making it the agency’s most-seen post ever.
Critics say that engagement is no accident. The messaging frequently mirrors classic wartime propaganda: heroic imagery, idealized Americana, overt Christian symbolism and AI-generated illustrations depicting almost exclusively White men.
In November, the family of iconic American painter Norman Rockwell publicly accused DHS of misusing his artwork to promote “persecution toward immigrant communities and people of color.”
For some extremism experts, the debate is no longer about subtlety.
“One of the clearest signs that this has gone beyond dog whistles,” Braniff said, “is that the neo-Nazis themselves have noticed, and they’re talking about it.”
Union leaders, scholars of fascism and extremism researchers, he added, are sounding the alarm for the same reason.
“It’s the frequency, the consistency and the backdrop,” Braniff said. “At this point, it feels quite overt.”
Source: CNBC
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