Ministry of Labor accused of using Nazi slogan in social media post

A controversial social media post from the Department of Labor has added fuel to already latent accusations that the Trump administration is amplifying rhetoric and images linked to far-right ideologies.

The post’s video, shared Saturday, features a quick slideshow of artwork depicting glorified scenes from American history, highlighted by a statue of George Washington.

The caption above the video reads: “One homeland. One people. One heritage. Remember who you are, American.”

Social media users quickly noticed similarities – in words, form and sentiment – ​​between the Labor Department’s message and a slogan used by the Nazi Party.

“The US government is issuing a version of ‘Ein volk, ein reich, ein führer,'” Terry Virts, a former NASA astronaut and current Democratic congressional candidate, said in a post. “I don’t see how this ends well.”

The slogan “Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer” translates to “One people, one country, one leader”. It was “one of the central slogans used by Hitler and the Nazi Party,” according to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

The two messages don’t match word for word, of course. But while experts caution against jumping to conclusions, many see numerous other examples of the Trump administration — including the Department of Labor — echoing white supremacist language, ideas or aesthetics online.

Bill Braniff, executive director of the Polarization and Extremism Research and Innovation Lab at American University, said he believes “when you look at this paper in the context of all the others, it’s not an accident.”

Even at first glance, the message raises red flags, Braniff said in an interview. The claim that Americans have “a unique heritage,” for example, conflicts with the nation’s history of welcoming people from around the world and establishes the idea of ​​an “in-group” and an “out-group,” he said.

Jon Lewis, a researcher at George Washington University’s Program on Extremism, agrees.

“You don’t want to try to read something in the tea leaves that might not be there,” he told CNBC. But “at some point you have to wonder how many times until it’s no longer a coincidence.”

“At a certain point, you can’t even really call it a dog whistle, it’s just a whistle,” Lewis added in an email. “How many times will official (US government) accounts openly post white supremacist content without any repercussions?”

The Department of Labor, led by Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer, did not respond to CNBC’s request for comment. A department spokesperson previously said: “The social media campaign was created to celebrate American workers and the American dream.”

The comment was made in response to the Guardian’s report on union leaders speaking out against the Department of Labor over the post.

“It’s not surprising that a fascist regime would post fascist propaganda on a fascist social network like

This message from Labor is not the first time that the Trump administration has been accused of spreading far-right or white nationalist propaganda on social media. But in recent weeks, the government has appeared to double down on some of the same controversial messages.

On Wednesday, ahead of diplomatic negotiations over President Donald Trump’s increasingly aggressive efforts to acquire Greenland, the White House shared a likely AI-generated cartoon showing two dog sleds at a crossroads, one leading to the United States and the other leading to Russia and China.

“In what sense, Greenlander?” Read the text above this image, which was posted on the official White House X account.

Critics accused the story of echoing “Which Way Western Man?”, the title of a 1978 book defending Hitler and advocating a white nationalist, anti-Semitic worldview. The book was written by William Gayley Simpson, believed to be a member of the neo-Nazi group National Alliance.

The phrase has gained popularity among the far right in recent years. It has been used in memes in which an image meant to represent modern society contrasts unfavorably with an image representing tradition.

The White House post was not the first time a version of the phrase appeared on government social media accounts.

Five months earlier, the Department of Homeland Security had released an ICE recruiting image titled “Which Way, American?” »

DHS Deputy Secretary Tricia McLaughlin called reporters’ questions about the message “embarrassing.”

In response to questions about the posts from the White House and Department of Labor accounts, White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson told CNBC: “It seems the mainstream media has become a meme of its own: the deranged leftist who claims that anything he doesn’t like must be Nazi propaganda.” This attack line is boring and tired. Take control.

On Jan. 8, the Labor Department posted a photo of a saluting Trump under the words “trust the plan” — a recurring phrase among followers of the far-right conspiracy known as QAnon.

Last Friday, official DHS accounts posted an ICE recruiting image declaring, “We will have our home again.”

This phrase echoes the title of the song “By God We’ll Have Our Home Again,” whose lyrics have been “attributed to an American neo-Nazi fraternal group,” according to the Toronto Holocaust Museum’s Hatepedia.

McLaughlin, when asked on CNN about DHS’s use of the phrase, accused critics of “manufacturing false outrage.”

“There are a lot of poems, there are a lot of songs, there are a lot of books with the same title. And the fact that people would like to pick something white nationalist… it’s no wonder we’re seeing such large and widespread attacks on our law enforcement,” she said.

The DHS post, which also featured a stealth bomber and a cowboy on horseback at the base of a snow-covered mountain, came two days after ICE agent Jonathan Ross fatally shot Renee Nicole Good during an altercation in Minneapolis.

The Southern Poverty Law Center said the administration’s shift toward allegedly white nationalist content on government social media may have started last June, when DHS shared a cartoon of Uncle Sam calling on Americans to “report all foreign invaders” to ICE.

Some of the most scrutinized posts generated the most engagement online. Last weekend’s Department of Labor post, for example, had nearly 23 million views on X alone, making it perhaps the account’s most viewed post.

But they are part of a broader messaging strategy that frequently promotes images and slogans evocative of classic war propaganda posters and idealized depictions of American and American history.

The Labor Ministry recently began sharing historical paintings captioned, sometimes, with overtly Christian messages. It also recently launched a social media campaign featuring AI-like illustrations depicting almost exclusively white men.

In November, the family of famed 20th-century painter Norman Rockwell accused DHS of misusing his ancestor’s work “to persecute immigrant communities and people of color.”

Some extremism experts say the message has become overt.

One way to know, Braniff said, is that “the neo-Nazis themselves have noticed it” and are talking about the administration’s rhetoric.

Other experts on extremism and specialists on fascism have also noticed it, as have union leaders who have challenged the Labor Ministry, he added.

“It depends both on the frequency of content that comes out, but also on the backdrop,” Braniff said. “It seems pretty obvious at this point.”