In a blistering segment that pulled no punches, MSNBC’s Morning Joe panel took a blowtorch to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and her department’s latest political theater — slickly produced videos of immigration raids across American cities.
The controversy erupted following footage released over the weekend showing DHS agents, often flanked by camera crews in reflective vests, arresting undocumented immigrants on the streets of Chicago. The heavily edited clips, set to dramatic music and spliced with scenes of chaos, were quickly posted to social media channels aligned with President Donald Trump’s political base. According to critics, including MSNBC’s Jonathan Lemire, the videos look less like law enforcement operations and more like campaign ads — tailored to stoke fear, outrage, and right-wing fervor.
“I mean, the footage here, as you say, is so extraordinary,” Lemire said during Monday’s segment. “And the reason why we also have so much footage is because they filmed the whole thing. Like there’s cameras, you can see there’s footage of these agents, some of them carrying cameras, and there’s a slick, slickly produced Hollywood-style trailer for social media that’s put out, and it’s just such an obscene — it’s just an obscene display of what? Not how the American military should be used.”
Let that sink in: the head of Homeland Security is not just overseeing operations to round up immigrants — she’s starring in the movie version of it.
Video clips show Noem, along with Border Patrol official Gregory Bovino, making heavily staged appearances at arrest sites. And that’s exactly what drew the ire of Morning Joe hosts, who slammed the effort as blatant propaganda masquerading as policy.
Co-host Joe Scarborough didn’t hold back either. “You always got the sense from the very beginning that the video of the immigrants being marched into the El Salvador prison. Yes, it’s just done in the most glossy way. I mean, a lot of those guys have been released at this point, but it was just, again, they wanted the video playing.”
Scarborough argued that the DHS video drops aren’t just targeted at rallying Trump’s base. They’re bait — designed to provoke outrage from the media and Democrats as well. “They wanted to play it not only so their base could see it, so people in the media could see it, and Democrats could see it, and they could have the reaction that they wanted to get, right?” he said. “And it’s the same thing. They get this slickly produced video of an invasion of an American city. Why? Because the base will love it and because the media and Democrats will be shocked.”
This isn’t just about optics. It’s about weaponizing optics.
The segment’s tone reflected a growing alarm among critics who see the merging of federal law enforcement and political messaging as a dangerous slide toward authoritarianism. When the government deploys both armed agents and professional videographers to the same operation, it sends a message that the goal isn’t just enforcement — it’s performance.
With Noem front and center, DHS under her leadership seems to be embracing that playbook fully. The question now isn’t whether this is propaganda. It’s how far they’re willing to go — and how many will keep watching.
Watch the full segment below:
