Labor Department accused of repeating Nazi slogan in social media post

A controversial Labor Department social media post added fuel to already smoldering accusations that the Trump administration is amplifying rhetoric and images associated with far-right ideology.

A video of the post, shared on Saturday, includes a quick-cut slideshow of artwork depicting glorious scenes from American history, with a statue of George Washington in the foreground.

The caption above the video reads: “One homeland, one people, one heritage. Americans, don’t forget who you are.”

Social media users quickly noticed similarities in language, format, and sentiment between the Labor Ministry’s post and the slogan used by the Nazi party.

“The U.S. government is posting a version of ‘Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Führer,'” Terry Bartz, a former NASA astronaut and current Democratic House candidate, said on the X-Post. “I don’t see how this is going to end well.”

The slogan “Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer” means “one people, one country, one leader.” According to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, this was “one of the central slogans used by Hitler and the Nazi Party.”

Indeed, the two messages do not match word for word. But while experts caution against jumping to conclusions, many see many other examples of the Trump administration, including the Department of Labor, repeating white supremacist language, ideas and aesthetics online.

Bill Braniff, executive director of American University’s Institute for Polarization and Extremism Research and Innovation, said he believes “when you look at this one post in the context of all the others, this is no coincidence.”

Even taken at face value, the post raises red flags, Braniff said in an interview. For example, he said, the claim that Americans have “one tradition” conflicts with the country’s history of welcoming people from all over the world and establishes the idea of ​​an “in group” and an “out group.”

John Lewis, a researcher at George Washington University’s Program on Extremism, agrees.

“You don’t want to try to read something into the tea leaves that may not be there,” he told CNBC. But “at some point, how many times do you have to ask the question before it’s no longer a coincidence?”

“At some point, you can’t even call it a dog whistle anymore; it’s just a whistle,” Lewis added in an email. “How many times does an official[U.S. government]account openly post white supremacist content with no repercussions?”

The Department of Labor, headed by Secretary Lori Chavez Delemer, did not respond to CNBC’s request for comment. A department spokesperson previously said, “The social media campaign was created to celebrate American workers and the American Dream.”

The comments came in response to a report in the Guardian that union leaders had criticized the Department of Labor over the post.

“While it is not surprising that a fascist regime would post fascist propaganda on fascist social media networks like

Labor’s post is not the first time the Trump administration has been accused of spreading far-right and white supremacist propaganda through social media. But in recent weeks, the government appears to have doubled down on some of the same controversial messages.

On Wednesday, ahead of diplomatic talks on President Donald Trump’s increasingly aggressive efforts to acquire Greenland, the White House released a cartoon, possibly AI-generated, showing two dog sleds at an intersection, with one road leading to the United States and the other to Russia and China.

“Which one are you, Greenlander?” reads the text above the image, posted to the White House’s official X account.

Critics have charged that the description echoes the title of a 1978 book that defended Hitler and advocated a white supremacist and anti-Semitic worldview, “Which Way Western Man?” The book was written by William Gary Simpson, who is said to be a member of the neo-Nazi group National Alliance.

The term has gained popularity among the far right in recent years. This has been used in memes where images purporting to represent modern society are unfavorably contrasted with images representing tradition.

The White House post wasn’t the first time a version of the phrase has appeared on government social media accounts.

Five months ago, the Department of Homeland Security posted a recruiting image for ICE with the caption, “Americans, which one do you want?”

Tricia McLaughlin, DHS assistant secretary at the time, called reporters’ questions about the post “embarrassing.”

In response to questions about the posts from the White House and Department of Labor accounts, White House press secretary Abigail Jackson told CNBC: “Mainstream media seems to have become its own meme: crazy leftists who insist that anything they don’t like must be Nazi propaganda. This line of attack is boring and disgusting. Get a hold of it.”

On January 8, the Department of Labor posted a photo of President Trump saluting under the words “Believe in the Plan.” It’s a phrase repeated among followers of the far-right conspiracy known as QAnon.

Last Friday, the official DHS account posted an image of ICE recruitment proclaiming, “We will have homes again.”

The phrase reflects the song’s title, “By God We’ll Have Our Home Again,” whose lyrics are “allegedly the work of an American neo-Nazi fraternity,” according to the Toronto Holocaust Museum’s Hatepedia.

Asked about DHS’ use of the term on CNN, McLaughlin accused critics of “manufacturing false outrage.”

“There’s a lot of poetry, there’s a lot of songs, there’s a lot of books with the same title. And given the fact that people want to pick on something white nationalist, it’s no wonder we’re seeing such massive and rampant attacks on law enforcement,” she said.

The DHS post, which also features a stealth bomber and a cowboy on horseback at the base of a snowy mountain, was posted two days after ICE agent Jonathan Ross shot and killed Renee Nicole Good during an altercation in Minneapolis.

The Southern Poverty Law Center said the administration’s shift toward allegedly white supremacist content on government social media channels may have started last June when DHS shared an Uncle Sam cartoon urging Americans to “report all foreign invaders to ICE.”

Some of the most scrutinized posts are also the ones that generate the most reaction online. For example, a Department of Labor post from last weekend had nearly 23 million views on X alone, making it perhaps the account’s most viewed post.

But they fit into a broader messaging strategy that frequently promotes images and slogans that evoke classic wartime propaganda posters and idealized depictions of Americana and U.S. history.

The Ministry of Labor has recently been working on sharing historical paintings, sometimes with overtly Christian messages. It also recently launched a social media campaign featuring AI-like illustrations depicting almost exclusively white men.

In November, the family of famed 20th century painter Norman Rockwell accused the Department of Homeland Security of misusing their ancestor’s work “to the cause of persecution against immigrant communities and people of color.”

Some extremism experts say the message is becoming more explicit.

One way to tell, Braniff said, is that “the neo-Nazis themselves are aware” and are talking about the regime’s rhetoric.

Other experts on extremism and scholars of fascism are aware, he added, as are trade union leaders who have called on the Ministry of Labor.

“It’s not just about how often the content is published, it’s also about the context,” Braniff said. “It seems pretty obvious at this point.”