Labor Dept. accused of echoing Nazi slogan in social media post

A arguable societal media station from the Department of Labor has poured gasoline connected already-smoldering accusations that the Trump medication is amplifying rhetoric and imagery linked to utmost right-wing ideologies.

The video successful the post, shared Saturday, features a quick-cut slideshow of artworks depicting glorified scenes of American history, foregrounded by a statue of George Washington.

The caption supra that video reads, "One Homeland. One People. One Heritage. Remember who you are, American."

Social media users rapidly noted similarities – successful word, signifier and sentiment – betwixt the Labor Department's station and a slogan utilized by the Nazi Party.

"US Government posting a mentation of 'Ein volk, ein reich, ein führer,'" said Terry Virts, a erstwhile NASA astronaut and existent Democratic legislature candidate, successful an X post. "I don't spot however this ends well."

The slogan "Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Fuhrer" translates to "One People, One Country, One Leader." It was "one of the cardinal slogans used by Hitler and the Nazi Party," according to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

The 2 messages are not a word-for-word match, to beryllium sure. But portion experts caution against jumping to conclusions, galore spot galore different examples of the Trump medication — including the Labor Department — echoing White supremacist language, ideas oregon aesthetics online.

Bill Braniff, enforcement manager of American University's Polarization & Extremism Research & Innovation Lab, said helium believes that, "When you look astatine this 1 station successful the discourse of each the others, it's not an accident."

Even astatine look value, the station raises reddish flags, Braniff said successful an interview. The assertion of Americans having "one heritage," for instance, clashes with the nation's past of taking successful radical from each implicit the satellite and establishes the thought of an "in group" and an "out group," helium said.

Jon Lewis, a probe chap astatine the Program connected Extremism astatine George Washington University, agreed.

"You don't privation to effort and ever work into the beverage leaves connected thing that mightiness not beryllium there," helium told CNBC. But "at a definite point, you person to inquire however galore times until it's not a coincidence anymore."

"At a definite point, you can't adjacent truly telephone it a canine whistle, it's conscionable a whistle," Lewis added successful an email. "How galore times volition authoritative [U.S. government] accounts station openly achromatic supremacist contented without immoderate repercussions?"

The Labor Department, led by Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer, did not respond to CNBC's petition for comment. A spokesperson for the section antecedently said, "The societal media run was created to observe American workers and the American Dream."

That remark was fixed successful effect to The Guardian's report connected national leaders denouncing the Labor Department implicit the post.

"It is nary astonishment that a fascist authorities would station fascist propaganda connected a fascist societal media web similar X, but it remains concerning to spot the DOL making posts that service a fascist, achromatic supremacist agenda," Puneet Maharaj, enforcement manager of National Nurses United, the country's largest nurses' union, told the outlet.

Labor's station is hardly the archetypal clip the Trump medication has been accused of spreading far-right oregon White nationalist propaganda done societal media. But successful caller weeks, the authorities has appeared to treble down connected immoderate of the aforesaid arguable messaging.

On Wednesday, up of diplomatic talks connected President Donald Trump's progressively assertive efforts to get Greenland, the White House shared a perchance AI-generated cartoon showing 2 canine sleds astatine a crossroads, with 1 way starring to the U.S. and the different starring to Russia and China.

"Which way, Greenland man?" work the substance supra that image, which was posted connected the White House's authoritative X account.

Critics person accused the relationship of echoing "Which Way Western Man?," the rubric of a 1978 publication defending Hitler and advocating for a White nationalist and antisemitic worldview. The publication was written by William Gayley Simpson, said to beryllium a subordinate of neo-Nazi radical the National Alliance.

The operation successful caller years has gained popularity connected the acold right. It has been utilized successful memes in which an representation purporting to correspond modern nine is contrasted unfavorably with an representation representing tradition.

The White House's station wasn't the archetypal clip a mentation of the operation had appeared connected authorities societal media accounts. 

Five months earlier, the Department of Homeland Security had posted an ICE recruitment representation captioned, "Which way, American man?" 

Assistant DHS Secretary Tricia McLaughlin astatine the clip called reporters' questions about that station "embarrassing."

In effect to questions astir the posts from the White House and Labor Department accounts, White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson told CNBC, "It seems that the mainstream media has go a meme of their own: the deranged leftist who claims everything they dislike indispensable beryllium Nazi propaganda. This enactment of onslaught is boring and tired. Get a grip."

On Jan. 8, the Labor Department posted a photograph of a saluting Trump nether the words "trust the plan" – a recurring operation among followers of the far-right conspiracy known arsenic QAnon.

Last Friday, DHS' authoritative accounts posted an ICE recruitment representation declaring, "We'll person our location again."

That operation echoes the rubric of the opus "By God We'll Have Our Home Again," the lyrics of which person been "credited to a U.S. fraternal neo-Nazi group," according to the Toronto Holocaust Museum's Hatepedia.

McLaughlin, asked connected CNN astir DHS' usage of phrase, accused critics of "manufacturing fake outrage."

"There are plentifulness of poems, determination are plentifulness of songs, determination are plentifulness of books with the aforesaid title. And the information that radical would similar to cherry prime thing of White nationalism ... it's nary wonderment we're seeing specified vast, rampant assaults against our instrumentality enforcement," she said.

The DHS post, which besides featured a stealth bomber and a cowboy riding horseback astatine the ft of a snowy mountain, came 2 days aft ICE cause Jonathan Ross changeable and killed Renee Nicole Good during an altercation successful Minneapolis.

The Southern Poverty Law Center said that the administration's crook toward allegedly White nationalist contented connected authorities societal media channels whitethorn person begun past June, erstwhile DHS shared a cartoon of Uncle Sam calling connected Americans to "report each overseas invaders" to ICE. 

Some of the astir scrutinized posts person generated the heaviest engagement online. The Labor Department station from past weekend, for example, has tallied astir 23 cardinal views connected X alone, perchance making it the account's most-seen post.

But they acceptable into a broader messaging strategy that often promotes images and slogans evoking classic wartime propaganda posters and idealized depictions of Americana and U.S. history.

The Labor Department has precocious taken to sharing humanities paintings captioned with, astatine times, overtly Christian messages. It besides precocious launched a social media campaign featuring AI-seeming illustrations of astir exclusively White men.

In November, the household of famed 20th-Century creator Norman Rockwell accused DHS of misusing their ancestor's enactment "for the origin of persecution toward migrant communities and radical of color."

Some extremism experts accidental the messaging has moved acold beyond specified canine whistles.

One mode to cognize that, said Braniff, is that "the neo-Nazis themselves person noticed" and are talking astir the administration's rhetoric.

Other extremism experts and scholars of fascism person besides noticed, arsenic person union leaders who person called retired the Labor Department, helium added.

"It has to bash with some the frequence of contented coming out, but besides the backdrop," Braniff said. "It seems rather overt astatine this point."