Gateway to Government
- Henry Leemann
- 4 days ago
- 14 min read
The White House’s Online Makeover
Social Media has changed; the medium has fundamentally evolved since its inception as a pastime to share experiences into some people’s entire livelihood. Alongside this evolution their networks have only increased in size every year, and have become a major outlet in the spreading of information. According to Pew Research, 38% of U.S. adults say they regularly get news on Facebook, and 35% say the same about YouTube. Understandably, both businesses and governments have capitalized on this to reach out to their constituents either to relay information or for community engagement. Various American government organisations and politicians, including the White House and the President of the United States, are no exception. These social media accounts have existed for years, but have recently started posting less tame material in a pursuit of viral ‘content’. Posting AI deepfakes of the opposition party, memes, and edits, which under previous administrations, including President Trump's 2016 term, seemed unheard of, until now. However, the shift to more informal posts is not sudden, and this trend is now formally becoming the ‘brand’ of the United States.
Domain Diplomacy: A History of Government Social Media
Whitehouse.gov has existed since 1994, established under the Clinton administration as the “Gateway to Government”, and every administration has used this same domain primarily as a window for civilians to see what the executive branch is working towards, as well as facts about the presidents and the building itself. Under the Obama administration, the White House moved to Facebook, Youtube, Instagram and Twitter (which become X). It was also under the Obama administration that the POTUS handle was created, where the president himself could personally have a social media presence and make announcements (as @BarackObama was run by a team of staff). Like the White House’s domains, the POTUS, VP, FLOTUS, and PressSec handles would change ownership with every new administration. The first president to have a personal Instagram and Twitter account managed personally before joining political life was President Donald Trump in 2016. He opted against using the given POTUS account, primarily using @realdonaldtrump as his main social media handle of choice. On his personal account, President Trump would make official announcements on Twitter as opposed to traditional press releases while at the same time airing his grievances with the state of the country and the media. In the meantime the @whitehouse continued to post the same statistics, administration wins, and goals acting still as the same window into the administration it had always been. His decision to remain informal created a disconnect between the tameness of the POTUS and White House accounts and the more active personal account of the president. The Biden administration chose to run similar messages across all accounts, much in line with the Obama administration, until the campaign season opened.
It was first under the Biden administration that the social media team began experimenting with ‘viral posts’ addressing political memes. President Joe Biden’s personal account posted the image above as a response to a meme online that the superbowl would be rigged by the President so that Taylor Swift's boyfriend could win. The post’s abnormal nature, in terms of its style and its cognisance of an online trend’s existence drew massive attention. Doubling down, the Biden administration embraced a meme directly meant to insult the president.
Let's Go Brandon
Let’s go Brandon was an online phrase meant to act as ‘double speech’ originating from an NBC interviewer at the Talladega Superspeedway who interpreted the crowd chanting “F*ck Joe Biden” on live TV as “Let’s Go Brandon.” Republicans adored this and used “Let’s go Brandon” as a way to express their discontent with the Biden administration. What no one expected was for the Biden administration to make their own version. Dark Brandon was a reelection campaign strategy using lazer-eyed or Raybans-wearing Joe Biden juxtaposing the typically sweet ice-cream-loving image typically portrayed of him. The strategy had mixed reactions but received national attention. The White House social media page also decided to mix interviews with “dark brandon” on the late night shows with their typical posts.
The ‘New’ White House
When President Trump made it into office for his second term, his social media team decided to closely emulate the president. Every social media under the Trump administration now would embody a unique tone all under one Trump ‘brand’. The POTUS Account remains the least reactionary and focuses on posting statistics, events, and accomplishments. While the White House also posts the same, often acting as a collaborator with the POTUS account, the White House also will post the unprecedentedly informal edits typically reserved for personal accounts. Where the POTUS account is traditional, the White House has opted for ‘trendy’. White House Spokesperson Abigail Jackson wrote "There's a reason so many people try to copy our style — our message resonates.”
The resonating message in question is definitely delivered in a countercultural style. Prior to the election, many Americans were disillusioned, suffering two economic crashes, natural disasters, a rise in theft of catalytic converters and a pandemic. Statistics showed that everything was improving, but the American public did not feel it. Words alone did not suffice and felt too sterile. What people sought was to see the dirty and unbridled truth. President Trump’s rhetoric evoked more emotion . His informal reactions incited reactions of their own, drawing more attention to his message. The modern White House follows the style shown to work by President Trump; that informality projects authenticity. The informal, more vulgar White House shows a new side of the government, one where it is not as bright and glistening as advertised; when the Signal group chat including JD Vance and Pete Hegseth got leaked, everything that the Republicans were saying behind closed doors matched exactly the same sentiments they have repeatedly been stated publicly.
America by Design
An understated but major force behind the shift in tone is the “America by Design,” executive order. Defined as “A national initiative to improve experiences for Americans, starting by breathing new life into the design of sites where people interface with their Government. It is time to update the Government’s design language to be both usable and beautiful […] to enhance the public’s trust in high-impact service providers, and dramatically improve the quality of experiences offered to the American public.” This initiative effectively reclassifies the United States as a national ‘brand’, one that embraces AI, technology, and that has and will continue to innovate. In international relations, “nation branding” traditionally refers to how countries present themselves to the world through tourism campaigns, diplomatic visuals, and cultural exports. In this sense, America by Design acts as the beginning of a new image of the United States: new narratives, renamed departments, and a shift in tone meant to communicate a new unruly identity. Instead of selling a product, the initiative sells a vision of the United States as technologically advanced, user-friendly, but not afraid to fight. The White House’s viral posts, humor, and contemporary visual style are part of a broader narrative strategy, not simply isolated stunts. The executive order describes “Thought leaders,” appointed under the initiative to serve as design quality controllers across agencies. Their job is to ensure that messaging, color choices, layout, typography, and imagery all adhere to the same design principles. Centralizing aesthetic decisions in this way, allows the federal government to speak in a single visual voice. The humor and informality found in White House posts reflect this updated brand identity. The government is no longer polished and distant, but accessible, reactive, and culturally literate. Viral edits, sharp tone, and witty captions do not exist in isolation; they reinforce the brand “America by Design,” aims to project. A country comfortable with AI-generated imagery, remix culture, and internet humor signals technological fluency, implicitly situating the United States as a modern, assertive, digitally advanced, unapologetic nation. Posts mocking President Biden as “Sleepy Joe” or simply as an auto-pen, facilitate a message that delegitimises the outgoing President while propping up the Trump administration’s own sweeping changes.
“The Democrat Shutdown”
When the Democrats and the Republicans could not approve the budget, the social media team doubled down on memes and name calling, especially during the government shutdown and the “No Kings protest”. During the government shutdown, which had an estimated cost to the United States of roughly $15 billion per week, and with 60,000 nonfederal workers losing their job, the White House social media team did not back down. Instead, they leaned even further into the distinctive open style. Rather than framing the shutdown through conventional messaging about legislative failure or economic consequences, the administration approached it almost like a cultural event, something to be narrated and shaped through stylised posts and tongue-in-cheek commentary. This narration is why the unofficial term “Democrat Shutdown” has permeated the online sphere.
The greatest cumulative example was https://www.whitehouse.gov/mysafespace/, a MySpace-inspired page created during the height of the shutdown (Post Editing Note: As of 4/12/2025 the website has since been taken down with the link now leading to a 404 page which features an icon of a man wearing a sombrero with the text “This site has served its purpose…for now”). The page uses design elements lifted directly from early-2000s styled websites: a sombrero filled background, mariachi music, multiple hyperlinks, a friend list for the democrats featuring “Fenty Girl”, “Antifa” and “Tampon Tim” tied all together by deliberately dated features. At the top of the page was an AI-generated image of Hakeem Jefferies based on a deepfake video posted from President Trump’s personal X inside the old MySpace “profile photo” frame. It was crafted to look amateurish on purpose, mirroring the raw, unfiltered aesthetic of the early internet. Portraying the former administration as dated and obsolete, reinforces the administration’s broader implicit message, a message delivered through design that the United States brand identity has undergone a decisive shift toward a more modern, technologically fluent future.
Beneath the humor was a strategic purpose. The design echoed the administration’s insistence that Democrats were “hiding in their safe space,” unable or unwilling to negotiate their way out of the shutdown. The White House dictated the tone of the conversation. The administration’s posts, graphics, and jokes continued to spread more widely than their formal statements, creating a sense of unity between the President and his online base. The MySpace parody page feels like something that originates from a public parody site, not government bureaucracy. The White House was not alone; around the same time, other political actors began adopting similar strategies, blending humor, cultural references, and online-native formats into their messaging. The ‘tone shift’ that once seemed unthinkable for official accounts began to spread across branches of government and into congressional offices and campaigns.
Who has followed suit?
The White House is not the only media department that has begun using memes in place of serious communication. The House Judiciary GOP posted a link on X claiming that the Epstein files were released on February 27th 2025, rather than an online client list, the link lead to the Rick Astley music video “Never Gonna Give you up”. Later that day the GOP took that post down.
The Democrats have adapted to the new landscape as well, though with different stylistic approaches. New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s campaign leaned heavily on social media, but instead of adopting the confrontational style, he emphasized sincerity and local connection. His posts highlighted New York-specific concerns, on-the-ground footage, and moments meant to feel more neighborly than national. His approach showed that informality online does not have to be abrasive; it can also be used to build an earnest, community-centered identity.
Other Democrats have gone in the opposite direction, adopting a tone much closer to the Trumpian style. California Governor Gavin Newsom frequently posts quick, cutting retorts, often matching Trump’s cadence and bluntness. His posts routinely spark reply threads, quote-post storms, and commentary segments on cable news, demonstrating that the strategic value of sharp digital exchanges is not limited to one party. The tone once considered uniquely Trumpian now appears across the political spectrum, because the platforms reward speed, ‘virality’, and emotional punch.
The broader dynamic can be seen most clearly in how political figures handle memes about themselves. The old rule of politics was to ignore mockery; the new rule is to join it; the way to kill a joke is to embrace it. President Biden’s adoption of the “Dark Brandon” imagery showed that embracing a joke neutralizes it. The same logic appeared when Vice President JD Vance dressed up as his online meme counterpart for Halloween, donning the wavy curly hair. In both cases, posts from both parties that played into the joke dramatically outperformed their standard political content. The unconventional style is becoming more standardised, while still risky, it has now become a more expected part of the modern political media landscape.
Potential Problems: The FRA, PRA and Covfefe Act
The Federal Records Act (FRA) is the foundational law governing how federal agencies must preserve records. Enacted in 1950, the FRA requires executive-branch agencies to maintain records that document their policies, decisions, and official operations. In 2014, as social media became central to government communication, the National Archives clarified that agency posts on platforms like Twitter and Facebook can qualify as federal records if they convey or reflect official business.
Agency social media accounts mixing formal announcements alongside memes, jokes, partisan commentary, or rapid-response messaging is creating problems in distinguishing what is official in the eyes of the public. It is important to note, these new types of posts do not meet the FRA’s definition of an official record, which is limited to materials documenting the organisation, functions, or decisions of the agency. This creates a significant gap: an agency’s policy announcement must be preserved, but a political jab, sarcastic reply, or viral meme posted from the same official account may legally be deleted, even if it has already shaped public understanding of government actions. The FRA was never designed for “hybrid” posts that are part official communication and part political performance, and as a result, many socially impactful messages leave no permanent record. The Presidential Records Act (PRA) changed the legal ownership of presidential and vice presidential records from private to public. The PRA was written in the aftermath of Watergate, when President Nixon attempted to destroy tapes and documents relating to the scandal. Before the PRA, those materials were legally considered his personal property and under President Carter, Congress intervened and the modern system was founded. For example, every White House and POTUS social media account from years past have been handed to archivists and preserved under a new but similar name.
Determining which of President Trump's tweets are ‘official’, and which ones are political commentary, has become a job in itself, clouding whether his jabs are jokes or threats. Both official and unofficial announcements cause ripples in both society and the economy like when President Trump posts “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR punishable by DEATH” online referring to Democratic lawmakers, or when the White House Posts a clearly AI deepfake of democrats calling themselves retarded. With examples like these, by being so absurd, most Americans can tell when internal satire is being employed. The problem is, the tweets can be deleted but their impact cannot.
The Covfefe Act (Communications Over Various Feeds Electronically For Engagement) was a cheekily named bill suggested during President Trump’s first term named after a nondiscernible tweet made by the president at midnight and subsequently deleted six hours later. The damage had been made by then, and it became a meme. He has never acknowledged that tweet being a typo or what covfefe could have meant. The bill sought to ensure that the president’s social media posts would count as official records under the PRA, regardless of content, and therefore could not be deleted. However, the act never passed. Unfortunately, without it, the government still lacks clear statutory rules for how to treat political or semi-official digital content. In reality even if this bill had passed, it never addressed any FRA-related preservation metrics. Recalling the fake Epstein file released on X, both Democrats and Republicans grew angry when the House Judiciary GOP ‘trolled’ the release of the Epstein client list, and simply deleted the negatively seen post so the criticism would cease.
The result is a significant gap between public expectations of transparency and the legal requirements for record-preservation. Since presidents, agencies, and congressional committees can delete digital posts that fall outside the narrow definition of “official records,” political messaging, satire, or controversial statements that affect Americans' thinking could potentially never make it into the public archive as a permanent record, unless reported extensively by private citizens. Government inconsistencies for current and future administrations will always have the ability to delete unfavorably seen announcements under the pretext that they were never announcements, just jokes.
The “No Kings” protests were stirred and named after these online posts and images referring to the president as a king. Since these were all jokes mocking the protesters, every single post made by the White House and the president in regard to calling the president a king can legally be deleted despite their real world response. These posts continue to influence the public mood, to shape political narratives, and in this case to mobilize thousands into the streets while leaving no guaranteed record of how modern history is taking form.
In the end, why the informality?
In today’s digital environment, the tone and style of public messaging matters as much as the content itself. Due to the nature of social media, people encounter information in an endless stream, surrounded by posts competing for their eyes, their reactions, and their time. Messages that feel personal, expressive, or emotionally charged stand out in ways that traditional government statements simply do not. A growing number of people now interact with news, culture, and even relationships through constant scrolling; any communication that fails to match that pace will fade into the background unnoticed.
This shift has changed the expectations placed on public figures. A message that would once have been delivered through a formal speech or behind closed doors can now be publicised as jokes, commentary, and trends. If a post does not engage or promote discourse, it is quickly overtaken by something that is. The informal style of White House communication not only provides that engagement but also modern adaptability, the redesign of the United States ‘brand’ seeks to convey.
In conclusion, reactions and attention are at the heart of what the administration is after. Perhaps it is an attempt to create a sense of overstimulation that desensitises the American public to shock. Trends come and go at a lightning fast pace, 15 minutes of fame has become 15 seconds, parasocial relationships, AI girlfriends, a loneliness epidemic are on the rise, and as anyone knows, one must never waste a good crisis. Your attention and data has become the world's primary commodity. We could perhaps say that if you are distracted by the media, you will not be attentive to the issues your country is facing. A modern day ‘bread and circuses’ where approval ratings rise based on distraction as opposed to merit. A more involved government evokes a feeling of ease, it creates a sense of security and in a twisted way, trust, as even if you dislike what you see, you are not surprised. Surprise creates shock and shock creates outrage. Outrage loses elections.
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Well written Henry!