On Tuesday, the White House shared a video on its social media accounts showing people in handcuffs and leg restraints being loaded onto a plane for deportation.
The White House captioned the video as an ASMR clip, a type of video known for certain sounds that some people find relaxing. The sounds in this video came from the clanking of restraints on the migrants.
Critics quickly took to social media to slam the video, calling it “disturbing” and even comparing it to Nazi Germany.
“If Hitler had a social media account,” said The Lincoln Project, a Republican group against Trump.
Kate Salk, the group’s rapid response director, added, “The dumbest f—ing person you know is cheering this on and in the same breath insisting that in Nazi Germany they wouldn’t have been cheering on the SS all the same.”
On Instagram, many people called the video “disturbing” and “unfunny,” questioning if the White House account was real.
Paige Masten, a deputy opinion editor at The Observer, said, “What strikes me most about the Trump administration isn’t just the abject cruelty of its policies, but the way the whole thing is treated as a meme. This is real life, not a comedy. These are real people they’re making a spectacle of.”
Joe Stieb, a National Security Affairs professor, said, “These people are so utterly disgusting and depraved. I’m tired of being told to empathize with them. Did economic anxiety make them do this racist s—?”
Julianne McShane, a writer for Mother Jones, criticized the video, saying, “This is a real post from the White House account. Does filming, editing, and posting this constitute waste of government resources, @DOGE?”
“We are better than this…” Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA) said on X.
Kelsey Atherton, an editor at the Center for International Policy Journal, said, “Every day the Trump administration does something that a future US government is going to have to apologize for. We live in an entirely human-made hell.”
Journalist Michael McGough asked, “Deportation porn?”
In a straightforward reply, one user said, ‘This is sick.’
Watch the clip below:
ASMR: Illegal Alien Deportation Flight 🔊 pic.twitter.com/O6L1iYt9b4
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) February 18, 2025
