The White House Posted A Shockingly Cruel ASMR Video. ASMR Creators Are Pissed.

Yahoo

21-02-2025

They may be known to speak in whispers, but ASMR content creators are raising their voices in anger over the Trump administration's latest social media stunt.
On Tuesday, the official White House Instagram and X (formerly Twitter) accounts posted a video captioned, 'ASMR: Illegal Alien Deportation Flight.' The 41-second compilation features close-ups of chains and cuffs being laid out on a tarmac and people walking with their hands and ankles bound onto a plane.
The video is a sendup of popular ASMR content: ASMR stands for autonomous sensory meridian response, a tingling sensation that occurs when some people hear soft noises, such as whispering, or crisp sounds, such as tapping and crinkling. These hushed, oftentimes sleep-inducing videos are wildly popular on YouTube and TikTok, where fans praise them as balms for their mental health.
ASMR: Illegal Alien Deportation Flight 🔊 pic.twitter.com/O6L1iYt9b4
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) February 18, 2025
The fact that the Trump administration would use ASMR ― one of the softest, cuddliest subsections of the internet you can find ― to promote its 'mass deportation' agenda didn't sit well with many.
Some called the post 'dehumanizing' and 'grotesque,' though unsurprisingly, the video had a fan in Elon Musk. 'So based,' the Tesla founder and Trump ally wrote alongside a mechanical arm emoji.
The video has plenty of 'likes' ― 93,000 on X and 65,647 on Instagram, as of Thursday night — but by and large, the comments are negative.
'This is one of the most disgusting things I have ever seen posted by this administration,' one comment on Instagram read. 'Regardless of your thoughts on immigration, a video of this real human going through a traumatic moment, posted as an ASMR VIDEO is VILE.'
It's the kind of ragebait that you might find on 4chan, not on the White House' official social media pages — though with this administration, dropping the kind of trollish content you'd expect from a 14-year-old edgelord seems to be the order of the day.
Last Friday, the White House social accounts posted a mock Valentine's Day card with the floating heads of President Donald Trump and Tom Homan, who as border czar is helping lead the administration's deportation efforts.
'Roses are red / Violets are blue / Come here illegally / And we'll deport you,' it read.
Since taking office in January, Trump has given the go-ahead to immigration authorities to fast-track deportations, raising critics' fears that he is bypassing the due process protections guaranteed by the Constitution.
Dozens of migrants have been moved to Guantanamo Bay, the military detention camp that Trump ordered to be expanded to house 30,000 of 'the worst criminal aliens.' But as HuffPost's Matt Shuham reported late last month, data from around the country suggests that many of those arrested or deported by federal agents under Trump don't have any serious criminal history at all, let alone any record that would raise fears about public safety.
ASMR video creators we spoke to say they're disappointed that their community is being co-opted in the name of such a campaign.
'Adopting an online phenomenon to attempt to normalize and trivialize state violence is abhorrent,' said Madi, who runs the channel MadiDuv ASMR on YouTube.
Amy Kay, who goes by Amy Kay ASMR on YouTube, sees this as just another example of the MAGA movement trying to 'own the libs.'
'Many go to ASMR for the human connection it provides in a disconnected world. It's a caring and accepting corner of the internet, so seeing it perverted to 'own' anyone who happens to have empathy hurts my heart,' Kay told HuffPost.
When Matty Almendinger ― a content creator who goes by MattyTingles on YouTube ― first saw the video, he said he thought, 'There's no way this is real and there's no way this is the actual White House account.'
There's a long history of people using the 'ASMR' title for clickbait when it has nothing to do with ASMR whatsoever, Almendinger said, but it was off-putting to see the same troll-like strategy from the White House. It felt like a slight to the ASMR community, which prides itself on being open and welcoming, he said. (Though admittedly, it could be more diverse, as we've reported on before.)
'I've been a part of many online communities and the ASMR community is by far the most wholesome, kind community on the internet,' Almendinger said. 'At the end of the day, we all just want to help others. That's what it amounts to. We spend all of our time creating content to help others relax and sleep.'
'So the fact that the Trump admin's social team had the nerve to take what we've built over the last 15+ years ― I've been doing it for a decade this year ― run with it and create something so obscene is very disappointing,' he added.
A content creator who goes by Julieta ASMR said she saw the video, but isn't paying it too much mind. As a Latina ASMR creator, she's trying to stay focused on the bigger picture and what she can do to make her viewers' lives better.
'Deportations and ICE terrorizing the Latino community is a devastating real problem that affects me and many others personally,' she said. 'I will continue to support marginalized communities and offer a safe space for people who want to fall asleep to my ASMR knowing that I'm not a [Trump] supporter.'
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