On Feb. 18, the White House released a 40-second video titled “ASMR: Illegal Alien Deportation Flight” on X. The video depicts immigrants being chained and handcuffed by police officers, before walking onto a plane for deportation. There is no dialogue in the video: the only noises are ambient whirling of engines and clanking of chains. For this reason, the White House labeled the video as “ASMR”— an acronym for Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response.
ASMR videos have become a viral trend over the last few years because they are intended to aid with anxiety and sleep, according to uclahealth.org. ASMR videos have lost their purpose at times, with influencers making videos ranging from eating food to scratching surfaces into microphones. Though these actions disassociate from the true purpose of ASMR, they are simple and unimportant.
The White House’s video, however, wrestles with the controversial topic of deportation. To some, juxtaposing a light-hearted ASMR theme with a serious political issue has come across as ignorant: “If you enjoy this, you need to deeply reflect on the kind of person you aspire to be,” said one X user.
A week later, on Feb. 25, an AI-generated video glorifying President Donald Trump’s vision to develop Gaza into a tropical resort named “Trump Gaza” was posted on Trump’s Instagram account, @realdonaldtrump. The video shows a computer-generated Trump sunbathing with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as well as Elon Musk being showered in money. The visuals are accompanied by background music praising the development plan of Gaza with phrases such as “Trump is coming to set you free” and “Trump Gaza is number one.”
Just like the ASMR videos, Trump’s post sparked controversy. With the Israel-Palestine War still decimating both Israeli and Palestinian communities, this video shifts the focus from the current issues to Trump’s idea for the future: a utopian metropolis in the most fought-over piece of land in human history.
Many have taken the video as a joke, but to some it feels insensitive. One Instagram user said, “This is objectively a terrible thing for anyone to post. Coming from the PRESIDENT??? Scary.” This comment received 22,700 likes.
The Trump administration is notorious for bringing a new angle to politics by whatever means necessary, and these videos deviate from the typically formal social media accounts of political leaders.
Since these posts, both the White House and President Trump have refrained from releasing any similar videos. If history repeats itself — as it has many times — these videos may be the first of many.