With Manifest Destiny art, DHS goes hard on 'white makes right'
John Gasts 1872 painting American Progress depicts Manifest Destiny, the religious belief that the United States should expand from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean in the name of God. (Fotosearch / Getty Images)
Since the start of President Trumps second term, the Department of Homeland Securitys social media team has published a stream of content worthy of a meme-slinging basement dweller on 4chan.
Grainy, distorted mug shots of immigrants. Links to butt-kissing Fox News stories about MAGA anything. Whiny slams against politicians who call out la migra for treating the Constitution like a pee pad. Paeans to heritage and homeland worthy of Goebbels. A Thomas Kinkade painting of 1950s-era white picket fence suburbia straight out of Leave It to Beaver, with the caption Protect the Homeland.
All of this is gag-inducing, but it has a purpose its revealing the racist id of this administration in real time, in case anyone was still doubtful.
In June, DHS shared a poster, originally created by the white-power scene, of a grim-faced Uncle Sam urging Americans to report all foreign invaders by calling Immigration and Customs Enforcement. On July 14, the DHS X account featured a painting of a young white couple cradling a baby in a covered wagon on the Great Plains with the caption, Remember your Homelands Heritage.
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-07-26/dhs-manifest-destiny-american-progress-painting