Kristi Noem's DHS is posting 1800s-style 'fascist propaganda' art to encourage Americans to 'Protect the Homeland'

Source: The Independent

Saturday 02 August 2025 12:40 BST


The Department of Homeland Security is accused of sharing thinly-veiled nativist propaganda on social media through art as it pursues a sweeping campaign of mass deportations.

Throughout July, the X account of the department run by Kristi Noem posted a steady stream of paintings exemplifying a very particular version of the “homeland.”

That has included posting the 1872 work American Progress by John Gast, in which an ethereal Lady Liberty floats above the Western landscape, as white settlers advance across the frame with stage coaches and rail lines, while Native Americans and buffalo run to the margins.

Another X post features the contemporary painting A Prayer for a New Life, by Morgan Weistling, a close-up of a white pioneer couple clutching a baby in the back of a covered wagon, along with the caption, “Remember your Homeland’s Heritage.” A third such post includes Morning Pledge, a nostalgic mid-20th century scene of kids in a small town walking towards an American flag, as painted by Thomas Kinkade.

Read more: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/dhs-trump-kristi-noem-paintings-thomas-kinkade-b2800005.html