When Government Officials Become Full-Time Influencers

Gregory Bovino loved to post. The Border Patrol commander who became the face of Trump's Minneapolis crackdown lost both his job and his X account after agents under his command killed Alex Pretti. But in those crucial two days after the shooting, Bovino was busy—not managing the crisis, but trolling Democrats online and defending his agents as the "real victims."

When Representative Eric Swalwell suggested ICE officers should walk off the job to protest the killing, Bovino replied: "I was thinking the same for you." At 1 a.m. on a Monday, he was still at it, responding to users with beer emojis and "Lol!!" messages.

Getting silenced on social media has become the worst professional fate a Trump official can face. It signals you're no longer a player in what observers are calling the "clicktatorship"—an administration that has merged social-media-first thinking with authoritarian governance.

The Rise of Poster Politics

This isn't just about officials using social media to communicate. The Trump administration's decision-making process has become hyper-responsive to what's trending on the far-right internet. Everything becomes content, and content drives policy.

Trump himself routinely makes policy announcements via social media. Last August, he attempted to fire Federal Reserve Board member Lisa Cook on Truth Social. When questioned by the Supreme Court about the lack of appeals process, a government lawyer suggested Cook could simply make her case on Truth Social. Due process, reduced to the right to post.

The administration's official social media feeds now pump out xenophobic memes and celebrate deportations with ASMR videos of immigrants in shackles. Days before Pretti's killing, the White House posted an AI-edited image of a woman arrested at a Minnesota church protest, manipulated to show her weeping uncontrollably. When reporters pointed out the digital manipulation, a White House spokesperson mocked them: "uM, eXCuSe mE??? iS tHAt DiGiTAlLy AlTeReD?!?!?!?!?!"

From Keyboard Warriors to Government Leaders

The personnel choices reflect this shift. Dan Bongino jumped from podcast hosting to deputy director of the FBI (though he recently returned to podcasting). Harmeet Dhillon, formerly a paid X influencer, now heads civil rights at the Department of Justice while posting up to a hundred times daily across her accounts.

"I've been stuck at the same level of followers on this account pretty much since I started my government job," Dhillon wrote last month. "What kind of content do my folks want to see more of to like and share?"

Even military operations get the social media treatment. After the Venezuela raid, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was photographed at a makeshift command center with X posts displayed on screens behind him.

When Viral Videos Drive Policy

The administration has pointed to social media influencer Nick Shirley's claims about welfare fraud to justify cutting billions in aid to five Democrat-led states. The same influencer's viral video was cited to justify the Minnesota crackdown that resulted in two American deaths.

Government documents now read like Truth Social posts. The White House website alleges that President Obama hosted terrorists, speculates about Hunter Biden having cocaine in the White House, and claims "it was the Democrats who staged the real insurrection" on January 6.

The Bubble Effect

Social media and authoritarian regimes share a dangerous tendency: they create information bubbles. Online, people cluster with those who already agree with them. In non-democratic systems, officials insulate themselves from reality because subordinates fear delivering bad news.

Both scenarios encourage radical actions over compromise, doubling down rather than moderation. The Trump administration maintained a unified front after killing Renee Good, arguing agents acted in self-defense despite contradictory video evidence. They attempted the same playbook with Pretti's death.

But bubbles eventually burst. The smartphones that enable the clicktatorship can also expose it. Citizens recording events in Minneapolis revealed truths that complicated official narratives, showing how the same technology that empowers digital authoritarianism can also challenge it.