This has been fact checked per “The Reflector” press time.
For how often I was told to mind my digital footprint, it really is shocking that the president of the United States clearly did not get the same advice.
President Donald Trump has been a prolific social media presence since he became a public figure. While I think social media can be a useful tool in modern politics as a way to connect with constituents, there should still be a standard of professionalism when they post. Trump’s avid and aggressive use of social media is an embarrassment to the American people, as he should always seek to uphold the integrity of our country, even when he is hiding behind a screen.
On Feb. 18, the White House official social media accounts posted a video that is still available on Instagram, of people who appear to be immigration officers lining up people who we are made to believe are immigrants, in chains and handcuffs, with the caption “ASMR: Illegal Alien Deportation Flight.” While this would be a horrific attempt at a joke from anyone, seeing the White House and the Trump administration make light of a traumatizing experience for immigrants — human beings — is cruel. These kinds of posts coming from the leaders of the U.S. show a lack of empathy in addition to the lack of professionalism.
After the video was posted, unelected bureaucrat Elon Musk reposted it with the caption “Haha Wow” with it. While I do not think anything Musk-related should be taken seriously (as he is an unelected billionaire pretending to be our president), the fact that Trump and his closest peers are openly mocking and dehumanizing immigrants seems to be very similar to the Nazi party in Germany spreading antisemitic propaganda amid passing antisemitic legislation before World War II.
Trump also posts several times per day on his Truth Social account, a social media platform that he created in 2022 after being banned from X, according to PBS. On Feb. 25, Trump posted an AI-generated video where Gaza was transformed into a golden paradise and called “Trump Gaza.” The video included Musk throwing money at children and women as well as Trump dancing in what appears to be a club with a woman who is, notably, not Melania.
The creator of the video, Sol Avital, told BBC News he originally used AI to make the Trump Gaza video as a satire to underline the “megalomaniac nature of the idea.” Avital said the video was a joke among friends and coworkers to test new AI technology and tried to get it taken down when he saw that it had gone viral, but it was too late by the time Trump had reposted it. The fact that the president sees satire content on social media and uses it as a way to push propaganda is, frankly, immature and disgusting.
In addition to reposting offensive content, Trump uses Truth Social to go off on all-caps tangents and regularly threaten our democracy. For example, on March 4 Trump said in a post that any university that allowed “illegal protests” to take place on its campus would lose all federal funding, and that agitators would be arrested, expelled or “sent back to the country from which they came.” Beyond the distinction in the Constitution that assembly must be peaceable, it is unclear exactly what Trump’s definition of an illegal protest is — after all, he pardoned the rioters from Jan. 6. Or is it only illegal if they are protesting him?
The president of the U.S. should always seek to be the pinnacle of professionalism and progress in the world, yet we have a president who rambles and openly mocks other people on social media. While it is not the only reason, Trump’s social media presence has made America look like a joke on the international stage, and it is time to start taking the things the president says, even online, much more seriously.
