On Valentine’s Day, the official White House account on X posted a syrupy little graphic telling followers to “Send to your Valentine,” complete with pastel candy hearts stamped with phrases like “MAGA” and “love.” The biggest heart? It read: “Daddy’s home.”
That’s when things went sideways.
Within minutes, critics were tearing it apart, remixing the image and replacing the cutesy slogans with lines like “Daddy’s a pedophile” and “Epstein’s home.” What was clearly meant to be playful branding turned into a full-blown online roast.
And it didn’t stop with random commenters.
Former GOP lawmaker Adam Kinzinger jumped in, writing: “For a group of people that are supposedly not Gay….. Interesting.”
User Susan Hunter replied: “Jesus, if someone called themselves ‘Daddy’ in a relationship, I would run. Far, far away.”
Award-winning author Jennifer Erin Valent didn’t sugarcoat it either: “It’s becoming increasingly evident that the people in this administration have no concept of how insanely stupid and grotesque they look to every sentient, mature human on the planet.”
Author Shannon Watts piled on with her own jab: “I’ll never understand so-called alpha men who want to be spanked by an insane smelly orange elderly man.”
User @BadFish101 wrote: “What kind of grown man refers to an obese, senile, 80 year old man slathered in drag queen makeup as “daddy?”
Then came the line that summed up the mood of half the internet. Camille MacKenzie, who identifies as a social conservative, looked at the official White House post and didn’t mince words: “This official account reads like a pedophile’s diary.”
Environmental scientist Bo Gardiner added: “Our country has fallen into the hands of the most nauseating cult in existence.”
Union insider John Ryan E chimed in with, “Imagine calling Trump daddy,” before asking bluntly, “What is wrong with you?”
The problem wasn’t just the Valentine’s gimmick. It was the tone. “Daddy’s home” — pushed out from the official White House account — struck a lot of people as weird, cultish, and wildly inappropriate for a government channel. Instead of coming off as cheeky, critics say it veered into something unsettling.
The White House hasn’t walked the post back. But online, the damage was done within hours.
When your Valentine’s Day message gets described as “grotesque,” “insanely stupid,” and something that “reads like a pedophile’s diary,” maybe it’s time to rethink the branding strategy.
