Why Is the Department of Labor Posting White Nationalist Propaganda?

The Trump administration’s Department of Labor sparked outcry this weekend after using language on social media that many observers pointed out echoes a phrase commonly used in Nazi propaganda — following months of post after post from the agency espousing white nationalist sentiments.

On Saturday, the Labor Department wrote on social media: “One Homeland. One People. One Heritage. Remember who you are, American.” Accompanying the text was a short video showing what appears to be a statue of President George Washington overlaid on a series of war-themed historic American paintings and propaganda posters.

Other accounts were quick to point out the strong similarity to Nazi propaganda that proclaimed “Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer,” translating roughly to “One People, One Nation, One Leader.” One historic poster shows a portrait of Adolf Hitler standing proudly with a Nazi armband, and that phrase underneath.

“We are governed by proud Neo-Nazis,” said Zeteo editor-in-chief Mehdi Hasan in response to the post.

The post is one of many recent posts by accounts within the administration that nod to neo-Nazis or outright white nationalist messaging, serving the administration’s goal for an all-of-government approach to its fascist immigration crackdown.

The Department of Labor has posted repeatedly about supporting Americans — specifically U.S.-born Americans.

In December, the account posted numerous times touting a claim that 100 percent of net job growth in the U.S. during the first year of Trump’s second term went to American-born citizens. At one point, it posted a screenshot of a headline from Breitbart that boasted: “ALL NET JOB GROWTH GOING TO AMERICANS AS FOREIGN-BORN EMPLOYMENT KEEPS DECLINING”, implying, among other things, that immigrants who weren’t born in the U.S. aren’t American.

The jobs claim — which is at best misleading — reflects an alarming priority for immigrants to be pushed out of employment by the agency that’s supposed to help manage and protect the American workforce.

Other posts have also reflected a commitment to white and Christian nationalism, with the department posting a Bible verse on Christmas Eve, and repeatedly calling for patriotism over globalism.

The administration has used the Department of Labor in its anti-immigrant crackdown, using the agency for a campaign to restrict H-1B visas last year. H1-B visas allow job-seekers from other countries to work in specialty occupations in the U.S.

These restrictions have been touted by the administration as a way to protect American workers, but H-1B visas are already only granted to workers representing specialties not typically present in the U.S. workforce.

The Department of Homeland Security has also been posting white nationalist propaganda on social media. The Southern Poverty Law Center found in an analysis that it “utilizes white nationalist and anti-immigrant images and slogans in recruitment materials.” The agency’s recruitment materials “feature white people almost exclusively,” while it also “disproportionately posts images of Black and Brown people accused of violating federal immigration laws” on social media.

“In some cases, the images and language appear to come directly from antisemitic and neo-Nazi publications and a white Christian nationalist website,” the group found.