The Trump administration is changing the way Americans perceive reality by its manipulation of visual images, two social media influencers said at “Together for Democracy.”
The two-day symposium in Washington, D.C., was sponsored by Democracy Forward and included a full schedule of keynote speakers and panel discussions.
Two participants in a panel on “What We’ve Learned One Year into Trump II” are young communicators attuned to social media and visuals: Azza Cohen, former official videographer for Vice President Kamala Harris, and Aaron Parnas, an attorney and Instagram influencer with millions of followers.
Azza Cohen
As a cinematographer, Cohen said she’s “really interested in how visuals and visual storytelling have been integral and essential to not only how this fascist administration is convincing us of their agenda through visuals, but also the power we all have to fight that.”
“What we have seen in this administration is a deliberate tactic of framing what they’re doing using classic Hollywood hero shots. They’re framing Donald Trump like he’s Batman. They’re framing Kristi Noem like she’s Wonder Woman. And these cinematic tactics are convincing us of their agenda.”
During her time working in the White House, every image was carefully curated and fact checked to be sure it was not offensive or misleading, Cohen said. But the Trump administration has thrown that caution to the wind.
Moroever, the administration is being deliberately provocative with its use of altered photographs, edited videos and cruel memes, she added. The point is that political bias can be conveyed not just through words but also through visuals.
Political bias can be conveyed not just through words but also through visuals.
She advised: “Every time you see an image coming from this administration, ask yourself, ‘Who took this picture? And is that person paid by the administration? What is beyond the four walls of the frame? And is there another side to this story? Is there a different independent journalist taking a different photo maybe behind what is or should right up to the left?’”
Further, the Trump administration has turned the official White House website into a political tool complete with visuals, Cohen said. “We have the White House using taxpayer funded people, whose job it is to inform the American people, they’re using this microphone and this visual microphone as well to use AI generated images to mislead and use misinformation as a way to rewrite the history.”
As an example, she pointed to social media images from the Department of Defense, the Department of Homeland Security and the White House itself that are “framing these fascist violent things and making them seem normal. The more times you see an image, the more that you think it’s OK.”
Aaron Parnas
She also cited a now-deleted page on the White House website called “My Safe Space” that published memes mocking Democratic leaders.
Last week, the White House posted a digitally altered image of a woman who was arrested to make it seem as if she was dramatically crying.
BNG previously reported on how other Trump administration entities are using social media images to promote racist ideals.
The way to combat the visual manipulation is to counter with real images of what the administration is doing, Cohen advised. “For every image of Kristi Noem walking in as Barbie with her hair done with all the agents behind her you can also show instead the image … of ICE agents slamming people to the ground and throwing tear gas in their faces — because that’s the real story.”
Parnas, who is 26, counts about 8 million followers across social media platforms. He posts brief video updates multiple times a day. And that has made him a frequent target of the Trump administration.
“The attacks are relentless, not from Trump himself thankfully, but from those around Trump, repeatedly online going after me after my video and my content. It’s daily at this point,” he said.
And despite the administration’s untruthful use of images, they’re actually not succeeding in convincing more people to their side, Parnas said. “What the White House is doing with images and videos is actually partially working against them. So just for perspective, yesterday I found a video of Kristi Noem. She was standing in the center, two CBP officers were left and right of her, she’s holding an assault rifle. The assault rifle barrel was pointed at the head of one of the agents.”
Parnas simply posted the image on Instagram with no caption. That got 3 million views and lots of comments from gun owners appalled that Noem doesn’t know how to hold a rifle and was pointing it at someone’s head.
“That’s not actually helping them,” Parnas said.