Trump’s Social Media Team Wants Your Reluctant Involvement

Recently, the official White House X account has continued its troubling pattern of using others’ creative works without consent. They posted an AI-generated remix of the Rick and Morty title sequence. Using the original audio from the show and a haphazard imitation of its unique animation style, the administration’s version replaced the iconic characters with Trump and JD. Throughout the clip’s 36-second duration, expect to see a series of highlights from MAGA culture wars. Diet Coke? Check. Red hat? Check. Criticism of Chuck Schumer? Check. As with many hastily produced creations, it lacks inspiration and creativity, feeling disjointed and careless. Yet, it carries a significant message.

These propagandists do not utilize pro-Trump parody to connect with existing pop-culture communities, nor are they subtly planting ideas for potential followers. With minimal actual humor, their posts barely meet the standards of MAD Magazine-style satire. In Trump’s AI-driven second term, parody has transformed into a weapon in the culture wars, far exceeding the typical social media manager’s strategy to find relevance or engage in discourse. The intrusion of MAGA into your moments of leisure is the intended outcome. 

Posts like the White House’s AI mashup represent a display of power and a form of retaliation. Their recent Rick and Morty post crystallizes how this has evolved into a genuine obsession for them, with the element of nonconsent being central to their thrill. Your justified immediate disgust at them tarnishing something you enjoyed is a crucial component. Their post is not truly fulfilled until you react.

On the surface, one might view MAGA’s blending of Trump into neutral pop culture as an act of balancing the scales—retaliation for years of enduring a supposedly “woke” Hollywood featuring Black or trans performers in traditional roles. this is merely a side battle in the online right’s culture war. Despite their grumbling over The Odyssey’s casting choices, the outrage has become increasingly difficult to sustain since the film debuted.

While he may seem disconnected, Christopher Nolan released a film that contradicted the core complaints of its most toxic viewers. Elliot Page’s brief role proved challenging to critique on solid grounds, while Lupita Nyong’o’s even shorter appearance as Helen further highlighted the absurdity of the racist backlash against a Black actress portraying “the most beautiful woman in the world” in a Mediterranean setting. Adding insult to injury, the film critiques the nostalgic tendencies that fuel much of MAGA’s sentiment.

Universally acclaimed and just starting its journey, Nolan’s Odyssey is on a path to easily surpass $1 billion and more, challenging the “go woke, go broke” narrative MAGA has been promoting for years. As art imitates life, we observe a cohort of unsavory viewers grappling with reality now that the figure they’ve discredited is undeniably regaining power.

It is noteworthy that Elon Musk, the obvious Antinous in this scenario, has been so unsettled by Nolan’s box office success that he has spent days proposing the idea of a more “historically accurate” competing film. Initially responding to a Twitter post suggesting he fund Mel Gibson with $100 million to direct an interpretation of Homer’s epic (without diversity and Fabletics armor), Musk quickly shifted to promising a feature-length competitor film by 2027 that would be entirely produced by Grok. Musk is known for his erratic statements, and Grok’s anti-woke Odyssey adaptation will likely fail for various reasons, if it even sees the light of day. the rapidity with which he chose to delegate the project to AI speaks volumes.

Despite his controversies, Mel Gibson is a respected director. A complicated favorite among film enthusiasts and a popular choice for the masses, he remains somewhat detached from various scandals. Regardless of political beliefs, anyone who has watched Apocalypto or The Passion of the Christ would likely be intrigued by Gibson’s interpretation of the ancient poem brought to life by the resources of the world’s wealthiest man. The proposition, if realized, would be a straightforward win—a legitimate project with a high likelihood of producing something artistically valuable that would yield profits. Yet, therein lies the issue. Elon and his disgruntled followers are not genuinely interested in creating art (or generating revenue) here. Their primary goal is to upset you, and they want to do it as quickly as possible.

AI serves as the ideal tool for realizing such spiteful ambitions. It eliminates the years of dedication and effort historically required to refine one’s craft into something deserving of public acknowledgment. It also allows them to bypass other time-consuming hurdles, such as establishing a personal connection with a desired director, actor, or artist, and instead simply appropriate their style with a few commands. In reality, the star’s exorbitant fee and the distasteful politics of MAGA would thwart the project before it ever reached the proposal stage. With AI, that initial rejection is avoided entirely, and their subsequent protests are merely the icing on the cake.

Combined with the reach of federal social media accounts, this unethical application of AI offers MAGA’s sadistic tendencies a new avenue. As more casual conversations shift to online platforms, no innocent discussion is safe from intruders who revel in the discomfort of others. It embodies the Jackass mentality of ruining someone’s day for amusement, now digitized without any of the creativity or intelligence. The White House’s post, which emerged mere hours after Rick and Morty’s Season 9 finale, lacked the subtlety of Chris Pontius jumping from the bushes in a gorilla suit—and shared the same objective of eliciting shocked reactions. 

Similar to Breaking Bad, Rick and Morty became such a cultural sensation that it attracted a group of unbearable fans whose behavior (as illustrated by infamous copypasta) briefly tarnished the show’s reputation. However, Dan Harmon, like Vince Gilligan, resisted catering to the worst elements of the audience. Instead, he treated the show’s success as permission to expand its world and characters on his terms. The show even achieved enough success to inspire its own Better Call Saul-style spin-off, the Keith David vehicle, President Curtis. 

If you haven’t been following along, Rick and Morty has been steadily producing high-quality seasons since its early attention-grabbing days, consistently delivering fresh, humorous, and often insightful episodes for over a decade. (I’ll stop here, lest I inadvertently indulge in the meme.) With each new adventure aired, that Szechuan Sauce stain began to fade. Even the cancellation of one of the show’s co-creators, Justin Roiland, was managed with a level of integrity and maturity that might surprise those who had dismissed the series as mere edgy content. The show swiftly severed ties with Roiland, who provided the voices for the main characters. Rather than resort to a cheap AI shortcut to replicate those voices for the remainder of the show’s historic 70-episode order—a questionable route that Roiland’s independent video game project faced criticism for—the show took a refreshingly humanistic approach, hiring two unknown actors skilled in impression to take over the lead roles.

However, with a single post, the White House tainted that well, dragging the show back toward the negative reputation it had worked so hard to escape. This slop serves as a stark reminder that the CHUDs are still present in the audience, lurking among everyone else, still consuming—and misunderstanding—Rick and Morty.

Although the White House social media team has been employing AI since the onset of Trump’s second term, you can trace the beginning of their strategy to spoil others’ enjoyment to a March 18, 2025 X post that co-opted a trend where people were using OpenAI’s (already ethically dubious) Studio Ghibli filter to depict a crying woman being deported, styled like a Hayao Miyazaki animation. Many were outraged by the distortion of such a beloved filmmaker’s aesthetic for such cruel purposes. MAGA eagerly consumed those tears, and the social accounts began consistently pushing the button that produced them.

Fueled by indignation, Trump’s social media team flooded the administration’s channels with slopaganda, seizing every chance to tarnish whatever cultural enjoyment people dared to have without them.

Excited for Grand Theft Auto 6? Sorry, it’s now MakeAmericaGreatAgain 47, because Trump is the 47th president. Get it? Or maybe you enjoy Minecraft? Harambe? Jimothy, the oddly deformed raccoon everyone’s been talking about? They are all MAGA now. No reference is too outdated, cherished, or nonsensical to be conscripted.

Even Trump’s sons, equally eager for their father’s validation, attempt to plant his flag in the discourse. Amid the controversy surrounding Sydney Sweeney’s American Eagle “blue jeans” advertisement last summer, Don Jr. shared an AI-generated image of his father in a revealing denim outfit, mimicking Sweeney, with the Zoolander-referencing caption: “That Hanse…. Um, Donald is so hot right now!!!” Chilling stuff.

Prior to the advent of generative AI, such posts from most organizations would likely have triggered legal pushback—or at the very least, been DMCA’d into obscurity within minutes. the legality surrounding AI parody remains unsettled for years to come. Even if a court were to eventually rule that clips like the Rick and Morty video constituted unlawful use, do we seriously believe that this administration would cease their activities unrepentantly?

This administration routinely employs songs it has no legal right to for Trump-boosting purposes, daring the aggrieved parties to take them to court if they feel the offense is worth engaging in expensive legal disputes, which it seldom is. Why would their approach to other forms of media misappropriation be any different? The social media team operates without restraint, fully aware that the platforms whose terms of service they violate wouldn’t dare bite the hand that feeds them, and that most creators whose works have been exploited can do—be they one of the world’s biggest music artists or an allied sovereign nation—is whimper a powerless “please don’t do that” whenever a violation occurs.

This is, after all, a presidency built on impunity. This is the crew resurrecting Manifest Destiny. Might makes right. If something exists in this world, it is theirs to seize. In the tangible world, that could mean a sovereign nation’s oil, land, or territory. In more abstract realms, where there is less material gain or personal glory to be had, Trump and the powerful allies are less committed to exercising this authority. their subordinates are empowered to apply this ethos as they see fit in their daily tasks and the broader goal of glorifying the President. Born too late in history, they missed the Viking longboat of their fantasies, where they could have pillaged and plundered the spoils of the conquering leaders they so faithfully serve. living in the AI era, which offers them deepfake porn and prompt-generated imitations, isn’t such a bad consolation prize.

Kaelan Dorr, the Deputy Assistant to the President and Principal Deputy Communications Director, clearly embraces this mandate. He is the mastermind behind many of those Trump-centric social media posts. Dorr derives satisfaction from leveraging his position to provoke outrage, even going so far as to change his X account’s banner image to mock some hypothetical critic: “oMg, diD tHe wHiTE hOuSE reALLy PosT tHiS?”

Trump himself may still (mostly) inhabit a reality distortion field he has maintained for a lifetime where he is always succeeding. While he enjoys praise, he doesn’t desperately seek external validation and attention like the true most powerful individual in the world, Elon Musk. Despite efforts from his inner circle to shield the President from the harsh truths of the outside world with fictitious daily briefings about how he’s winning in Iran and loved nationwide, the walls are evidently closing in. 

By serving as Trump’s protective layer, even “true believer” staffers like Dorr recognize that everyone outside the bubble detests them and this historically unpopular administration. They are all aware of it. They don’t care. If anything, confronting the universal disdain aimed at them has only strengthened this administration’s determination and emboldened even more overtly corrupt and fascistic actions during their remaining time in power. While greed and self-preservation may drive the President and his inner circle, pettiness and spite are often equally motivating factors. For many of his supporters who will not walk away from this with a financial gain, pettiness and spite appear to be sufficient.

Certainly, the ride will end eventually. They may even someday face repercussions for their involvement in all the corruption and misconduct. there is still time left on the clock to loot and wreak havoc, so why not continue to troll away like a desperate monkey, eager for the dwindling dopamine rush from each new release? Forget everyone else and whatever or whoever comes next. All they know is this feels good right now.

Thus, while individuals like Dorr and his team—lost souls with Reddit-brain, forever outside the party they desperately wish to join—still possess influence, you can be certain they will continue to intrude into and spoil any moment of relief you attempt to take from the relentless challenges of contemporary America. You cannot close your eyes or tune it out. Witnessing the MAGA-fication of beloved media is your humiliation ritual and existential nightmare, a consequence of not already being part of their team and their revenge for every perceived instance of “woke” thrust upon them by Hollywood elites.  MAGA triumphed. You faltered. You WILL be reminded that “Trump is YOUR President,” their go-to mocking reminder, always delivered with an implied Nelson Muntz “HA HA” conclusion.

As desirable as it would be to have some magical technology that enables artists to prevent specific malicious actors from ever misappropriating (or enjoying) their works, AI and its proponents are clearly steering our world in the opposite direction. The best course of action for the remainder of this term is to endure, take detailed notes, and wait for the day when some form of justice ultimately catches up with our tormentors. 

You will likely continue to ask “who is this for” each time they dip their hands into the communal punch bowl and anticipate, grinning, for everyone else to recoil. I certainly did when they released a careless adaptation of Nicole Kidman’s AMC Theater promos while I was drafting this piece. The answer to that question is fluid; the initial provocation is intended for your view, but the recoil it generates is the final product relished solely by them. These parody posts deserve to be archived, credited, and remembered, but keep in mind that those creating them are also seeking the ecstatic reaction shot: proof that they reached into someone else’s enjoyment and inflicted pain. Denying them that spectacle is not the same as ignoring their actions.

To paraphrase an internet hero whom this administration could never comprehend or appropriate: when the next defilement of some pure and cherished piece of culture occurs, online or offline, please do not allow them to report that you became upset.