Like many of us, I am seldom shocked by the apathy of the Trump administration anymore, but when I first saw the White House’s “ASMR: Illegal Alien Deportation Flight” TikTok – an ASMR-style video of police officers patting down and handcuffing allegedly undocumented immigrants before loading them onto planes – even I was taken aback.
The first year of Donald Trump’s second term has boasted a series of jarring departures from the norms of American presidencies, an observation that is perhaps most substantiated by his approach to deportation. Indeed, deportations have been a characteristic of American presidential policy for decades; Trump still hasn’t surpassed the number of people Obama deported throughout his two terms in office.
What is particularly striking about Trump’s immigration policy, though, is the length that his administration goes to to make a spectacle of each deportation, ostentatiously celebrating a practice that, while ubiquitous in American history, has traditionally been approached with an alleged – albeit likely faux – degree of reverence. Yes, deporting people in silence – or at least without so much explicit celebration – still separates the same children from their parents, wreaks the same harm on some of the country’s hardest working people, and equally erases America’s historical promise to take in “your tired, your poor, your huddled masses.” Still, there is something uniquely evil and dehumanising in the administration’s encouragement of the American public to celebrate these deportations with the same enthusiasm they would a Super Bowl win.
Social media is the primary forum for this expression of masochism, as the White House uses TikTok trends to spark engagement and progressively normalise its celebrations of violence. Scrolling through the official White House page offers a carousel of callousness through which users can peruse, including an edit boasting ICE’s “one-way Jet2 holiday to deportation. Nothing beats it!” and a fancam-style edit of Sabrina Carpenter’s SNL appearance to assure the public that “If you’re a criminal illegal, you WILL be arrested and deported. ✨” As Phil Klay astutely articulated in his New York Times OpEd, “I suspect the question this administration cares about is not ‘is this legal,’ ‘is this a war crime,’ ‘is this murder’ or even ‘is this good for America,’ but rather, ‘isn’t this violence delightful?’”
It is absolutely paramount that we continue to emphasise the immorality of the Trump administration’s joyous response to forcibly removing people from the nations they have worked hard to call home, while also not forgetting the harsh reality of deportation amongst the fanfare. This emphasis is not an effort to glorify or white-wash previous administrations by highlighting how far Trump has strayed from historical norms, but to maintain our refusal to let this celebration of callousness become the new norm. Historically, some of the most effective guardrails of American democracy have not been those enshrined in our constitution, but in our social contract. So, if there’s any chance that continuing to point and shriek will help protect the social contract that the Trump administration is trying so tirelessly to destroy, I’ve got nowhere to be until the 2028 election.
“The White House (Washington DC)” by ~MVI~ (warped) is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
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Trump’s TikTok is Tearing America’s Social Contract
Like many of us, I am seldom shocked by the apathy of the Trump administration anymore, but when I first saw the White House’s “ASMR: Illegal Alien Deportation Flight” TikTok – an ASMR-style video of police officers patting down and handcuffing allegedly undocumented immigrants before loading them onto planes – even I was taken aback.
The first year of Donald Trump’s second term has boasted a series of jarring departures from the norms of American presidencies, an observation that is perhaps most substantiated by his approach to deportation. Indeed, deportations have been a characteristic of American presidential policy for decades; Trump still hasn’t surpassed the number of people Obama deported throughout his two terms in office.
What is particularly striking about Trump’s immigration policy, though, is the length that his administration goes to to make a spectacle of each deportation, ostentatiously celebrating a practice that, while ubiquitous in American history, has traditionally been approached with an alleged – albeit likely faux – degree of reverence. Yes, deporting people in silence – or at least without so much explicit celebration – still separates the same children from their parents, wreaks the same harm on some of the country’s hardest working people, and equally erases America’s historical promise to take in “your tired, your poor, your huddled masses.” Still, there is something uniquely evil and dehumanising in the administration’s encouragement of the American public to celebrate these deportations with the same enthusiasm they would a Super Bowl win.
Social media is the primary forum for this expression of masochism, as the White House uses TikTok trends to spark engagement and progressively normalise its celebrations of violence. Scrolling through the official White House page offers a carousel of callousness through which users can peruse, including an edit boasting ICE’s “one-way Jet2 holiday to deportation. Nothing beats it!” and a fancam-style edit of Sabrina Carpenter’s SNL appearance to assure the public that “If you’re a criminal illegal, you WILL be arrested and deported. ✨” As Phil Klay astutely articulated in his New York Times OpEd, “I suspect the question this administration cares about is not ‘is this legal,’ ‘is this a war crime,’ ‘is this murder’ or even ‘is this good for America,’ but rather, ‘isn’t this violence delightful?’”
It is absolutely paramount that we continue to emphasise the immorality of the Trump administration’s joyous response to forcibly removing people from the nations they have worked hard to call home, while also not forgetting the harsh reality of deportation amongst the fanfare. This emphasis is not an effort to glorify or white-wash previous administrations by highlighting how far Trump has strayed from historical norms, but to maintain our refusal to let this celebration of callousness become the new norm. Historically, some of the most effective guardrails of American democracy have not been those enshrined in our constitution, but in our social contract. So, if there’s any chance that continuing to point and shriek will help protect the social contract that the Trump administration is trying so tirelessly to destroy, I’ve got nowhere to be until the 2028 election.
“The White House (Washington DC)” by ~MVI~ (warped) is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
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