type: timeline_event
On June 11, 2025, the Department of Homeland Security's official social media accounts began posting recruitment content that incorporated imagery and language traced to white nationalist sources, marking a documented shift in federal agency communications toward extremist rhetoric.
The initial post featured a doctored Uncle Sam graphic with the caption: "Help your country … and yourself … REPORT ALL FOREIGN INVADERS" linking to an ICE tipline. Mother Jones traced the graphic to an X user called "Mr. Robert," whose bio states "Wake Up White Man" and whose account is associated with racial slurs and reposting neo-Nazi content.
This represented the beginning of a sustained campaign that would escalate through August and beyond:
August 6, 2025: DHS posted image of two white men in tactical gear holding assault rifles with caption "We're taking father/son bonding to a whole new level." The men had no government agency identification and resembled militia members.
August 11, 2025: Uncle Sam at crossroads graphic with directional signs reading "INVASION," "CULTURAL DECLINE," "HOMELAND," and "LAW & ORDER" captioned "Which way, American man?" SPLC researchers identified this as a reference to "Which Way Western Man?" by William Gayley Simpson—a text published by the National Alliance, a neo-Nazi organization.
August 14, 2025: Recruitment graphic featuring vintage Ford van with caption "Want to deport illegals with your absolute boys?"
White Supremacist Response: Jared Taylor, host of the white nationalist American Renaissance podcast, discussed the DHS imagery on August 14, 2025, calling it a "remarkable change" and praising the agency's communications shift.
The SPLC Hatewatch investigation found that while DHS recruitment imagery featured white people almost exclusively, the agency's social media disproportionately posted images of Black and Brown people accused of immigration violations—creating a visual narrative aligning with Great Replacement conspiracy theories.
This official deployment of white nationalist aesthetics occurred under the communications direction of Billy McLaughlin (White House Digital Content Director) and Kaelan Dorr (White House Deputy Communications Director), who in August 2025 celebrated creating "Call of Duty-style recruiting videos" and stated "every post had intention."
The campaign represents the institutionalization of white nationalist messaging through official federal channels—a development that SPLC noted follows the appointment of figures with documented ties to white nationalist ideology, particularly Stephen Miller (White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy), whose private emails promoting white nationalist literature were documented by SPLC in 2019.