Leaked Chats Show Trump Aides Pressured ICE to Prioritize Propaganda Over Facts
A recent investigation by The Washington Post uncovered Trump aides repeatedly pressuring ICE’s communications team to “flood the airwaves” with “propaganda”. Yes, that is the exact wording they used.
They requested the videos to be dramatic and viral, even when they do not accurately portray what was actually happening on the ground. The priority here wasn’t accuracy or telling the truth; it was to spread their rhetoric through social media optics.
As a result, ICE’s public affairs unit was turned into a propaganda shop, churning out Reddit-style clips of migrants being chased, shackled, and mocked, labeled as the “Worst of the Worst”, even when those arrested had no criminal record.
In one Los Angeles enforcement blitz, ICE went from posting three times in a day to nearly forty times in just eleven hours.
This included mug shots, arrests, and inflammatory captions flooding their social media channels, intended to provoke outrage and gain social media traction.
Internal chats showed an array of reactions: some staff members were alarmed by the shift, others openly accepted and embraced it. One official even admitted that the videos were discarded if “the truth of the operation” didn’t align with the slogan being pushed.”
In another instance, a deportation video was reportedly re-cut to remove women because it didn’t fit the desired image.
The push included invites to pro-Trump influencers who promoted it, using copyrighted music and imagery without permission. DHS videos were later taken down after complaints from artists and rights holders, including musicians and even the Pokémon Company.
As pressure mounted, communications staff were sent into dangerous enforcement scenes with little protection, sometimes filming arrests themselves when professional crews weren’t available. One public affairs officer ended up hospitalized after being injured during a raid. Others described being sent into dangerous situations without proper gear.
Trump officials deny any wrongdoing. DHS leadership insists the content is “transparent” and claims legal teams approved the posts. The White House has dismissed criticism as whining from bureaucrats finally being forced to “do their jobs.”
But the leaked messages tell a different story…. one where state power, social media, and dehumanization collide. This wasn’t transparency. It was propaganda designed to go viral, no matter the ripple effect of human cost.
This is what it looks like when a government stops governing and starts performing. When enforcement becomes content, cruelty becomes branding, and truth becomes optional.
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The leaked messages don’t just expose bad judgment… they reveal a deliberate strategy to turn human suffering into spectacle to serve political power.
The question isn’t whether this approach crossed a line. It’s how long it’s been happening, who approved it, and why anyone thought they wouldn’t eventually be caught.
We continue to justify invading countries across the world with the excuse of spreading our democracy globally, while we ourselves operate closer and closer to a dictatorship.
THE COMMON GOOD MANIFESTO
A society built for people, not predators.
We are at our best when we invest in each other.
We are at our worst when we abandon the vulnerable.
This manifesto is how we return to the common good.
I. DIGNITY AND JUSTICE
1. Release the Epstein files — full transparency, no exceptions.
2. Impeach, convict, and imprison Donald Trump and every handler who enabled his corruption.
3. No federal office for any convicted felon.
4. End the weaponization of the justice system against the poor, immigrants, LGBTQ people, and marginalized communities.
II. DEMOCRACY THAT ACTUALLY WORKS
1. Abolish the Electoral College — one person, one vote.
2. Abolish ICE — replace it with humane immigration policy that honors human rights.
3. Ban gerrymandering with a standardized national apportionment method.
4. Two-term limits for every elected office.
5. Mandatory retirement at 70 for all elected officials.
6. Paper ballots only — end the era of hackable voting machines.
III. AN ECONOMY THAT SERVES PEOPLE
1. Restore 1950s-style progressive tax rates — when America was prosperous and fair.
2. Overturn Citizens United — corporations are not people.
3. Eliminate the Social Security payroll cap and tax capital gains for Social Security contributions.
4. $25 minimum wage indexed to inflation.
5. Medicare for All, one unified system — no A/B/C/D maze.
6. Congress receives Medicare, not boutique private insurance.
IV. WORKERS, CREATIVES, AND PUBLIC SERVANTS
1. Big pay raises for social workers, teachers, librarians, artists, and cultural workers — the people who actually hold society together.
2. Universal childcare — because families are the foundation of the nation.
3. Free public university education.
4. Full forgiveness of all student debt.
V. CLEAN GOVERNMENT
1. Root out corruption at every level, starting at the top.
2. Full financial transparency for every elected official, appointee, and senior bureaucrat.
3. Ban lobbying for former officeholders for life.
VI. THE FUTURE WE CHOOSE
We choose a country that values:
• Compassion over cruelty
• Community over greed
• Truth over propaganda
• Shared prosperity over billionaire hoarding
• Democracy over minority rule
• Human dignity over corporate profit
We choose a nation where the common good is not a slogan, but the organizing principle of public life.
And we refuse to apologize for demanding better.
Shocking to no one.