Cringe At The Capitol: How ‘Deportation ASMR’ Could Undermine Immigration Policy
The official X account for The White House ruffled some feathers with a 36-second video documenting the supposed detainment of an undocumented immigrant with the caption, “ASMR: Illegal Alien Deportation Flight.” The post garnered over 100 million views in less than 48 hours and sparked a debate over the optics of the Trump administration’s platform of mass deportation.
If the goal was to get a rise out of everyone and stir up a conversation about immigration, they need to give whatever Zoomer social media manager is posting on The White House account a raise. That being said, most responses across the political spectrum were overwhelmingly critical. While opinions on immigration policy diverged along party lines, most agreed that the post was tone deaf, whether because it delighted in callous cruelty by “fetishizing harm” or felt indulgently “psychopathic.”