On Wednesday, the Department of Homeland Security posted a striking graphic on its official X account. Uncle Sam, a symbol of American patriotism, is depicted nailing a poster to a wall that reads, “Help your country… and yourself.” Written underneath the poster is the sentence, “REPORT ALL FOREIGN INVADERS,” and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement hot line.
The post — which DHS and the White House also posted to Instagram — prompted a flood of criticism, with some social media users comparing the post to authoritarian propaganda. On Thursday, at least two far-right X accounts claimed to have a hand in creating or disseminating the image before it was shared by DHS. A source within DHS told CNN the agency did not create the graphic.
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The Uncle Sam graphic is reminiscent of media used previously by other governments to provoke fear, especially of immigrants, said Elisabeth Fondren, a journalism professor at St. John’s University who has studied government propaganda and communications during war times.
“This poster fits within a long history of anti-immigrant rhetoric and, yes, state propaganda,” Fondren said. “It evokes these remnants of Cold War, fake propaganda by the Russians, or, you know, authoritarian fear mongering messages … but what I think is so interesting is that this is a call to action in an environment where we’re not in a war.”
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Perhaps from here:
The image of the Uncle Sam poster was posted on X last Friday, around the time tensions in Los Angeles escalated, by podcaster C. Jay Engel, who describes himself as “Christian nationalist adjacent” and has claimed that “nations cannot survive replacement migration.” After DHS shared the Uncle Sam image, Engel posted: “This image came from my account. NEVER STOP POSTING.”
“The question is, ‘Is there room for like-minded Christians and patriots in Tennessee?’” the podcaster, Engel, said in an October podcast, in response to a listener’s question. “Yes, there’s an imperative for like-minded Christians to gather and fight with us.”
Or maybe:
Although Engel circulated the image of the Uncle Sam poster, another X user claimed to have created the image. That pseudonymous X account, which has the words “Wake Up White Man” in its biography, is full of nativist rhetoric and reposted another X user who declared: “Whites deserve our own nations, like everyone else is allowed to have.” The pseudonymous account appears to have been the first to post the image.
It’s beyond disgusting that Homeland Security is sourcing such material from white supremacists.
https://www.cnn.com/2025/06/12/politics/dhs-social-media-post-ice-deportations-criticisms