DHS Accused of Promoting Whitewashed Vision of America in Viral Painting Post: 'In Case You Had Any Doubts…'

Critics argue the painting's deployment is part of a broader DHS effort to invoke a selective and exclusionary vision of American identity. "In case you had any doubts about the white supremacist thing," one X user responded to the post.

Emily C. Burns, director of the Charles M. Russell Center for the Study of Art of the American West, told the outlet that such depictions erase the histories of Indigenous people, Black cowboys, and Chinese immigrants who were instrumental in shaping the West:

"The main stories that are told through art of the American west tend to focus on white settlers, which omits the suppression of other populations. It's challenging when a single image of something that is incredibly complicated is placed in the foreground. What stories are lost in that?"

Adam Klein, a media scholar at Pace University, said DHS's wording around the image evokes far-right and anti-immigrant rhetoric:

"The [Weistling] painting isn't violent at all. On the surface, it's a beautiful image. But when you look at where it's coming from, with [DHS using] language like 'homeland' and 'heritage', that's really evocative of anti-immigrant sentiment."

Weistling, the artist behind the painting responded on his website, writing that the image was used without authorization and that the painting portrays two parents with their baby "praying to God for his fragile life on their perilous journey."

Asked about its use of the image, a DHS spokesperson told The Guardian:

"If the media needs a history lesson on the brave men and women who blazed the trails, forded the rivers, and forged this Republic from the sweat of their brow, we are happy to send them a history textbook. This administration is unapologetically proud of American history and American heritage. Get used to it"

In that regard, the Weistling post fits into a growing pattern of provocative content from DHS and other official channels under Trump's second administration. DHS has combined hardline immigration policies with an aggressive digital strategy that also includes memes and AI-generated images, as NBC News explained in a separate report on Wednesday.

In June, for example, on the heels of the inauguration of the so-called "Alligator Alcatraz" migrant detention center in Florida DHS posted what appeared to be an AI-made image of alligators with caps that read "ICE" on them, accompanying the post with a caption that read "Coming soon!":

In another June post that went viral, DHS shared an image that showed Uncle Sam pasting a sign urging citizens to "REPORT ALL FOREIGN INVADERS," which prompeted users to users to compare the post to authoritarian propaganda. As CNN reports, at least two far-right X accounts claimed to have a hand in creating or disseminating the image before it was shared by DHS

DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin told NBC News that she is not concerned about the content's divisive nature, claiming she sees the role of the DHS social media accounts as giving people "the truth" and circumventing media outlets she deems hostile.

"Eight years ago, under the first Trump administration, we didn't have the social media environment that we have today, and so I think that we were more beholden to what the media was saying, and we couldn't necessarily straighten out the facts. And now, you know, we have a presence that we're able to do that."