The White House has deleted a social media post in which the vice-president, JD Vance, referred to the Armenian genocide, prompting anger from members of the Armenian diaspora as well as opposition politicians across the US. The post was made during Vance's two-day trip to Armenia to mark a visit by Vance and his wife, Usha Vance, to a memorial for the up to 1.5 million Armenians killed by Ottoman troops more than a century ago.
I'm old enough to remember when it was frowned upon-even considered very bad-for the White House to photoshop anything or digitally alter photos for the public record. On Thursday, the official White House social media accounts posted a digitally altered photo of an arrested protester to make it look like she was crying. About thirty minutes earlier, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem posted what seems to be the original image of the arrest-in which the woman appears completely composed.
Axios has learned the White House has begun managing the DOJ's account on X, Axios reported in its Christmas Eve morning newsletter. The account is taking a sharper tone with a more rapid-response campaign edge. It's unclear when the White House first took over the account, but a post by the Department of Justice announcing the latest Epstein files' release on Tuesday was quick to absolve the president of any wrongdoing.
The most infamous example of his experimentation with AI-generated videos came ahead of the No Kings protests earlier this month. In the clip, the president is decked out in full Top Gun gear, piloting a fighter jet bearing "KING TRUMP" on its side. Instead of a traditional pilot's helmet, however, the president is wearing a literal crown, just in case the rest of the visuals were too subtle.
Shapiro shared the details during the Monday episode of his eponymous show. The Daily Wire co-founder was recapping his time at the memorial service, which he said was emotionally overwhelming, when he briefly touched on the rekindled Musk-Trump relationship. I got a chance to say hello to Elon afterward, and he was quite happy, obviously, that he and the president have made up, Shapiro said. A moment earlier, the conservative commentator said the Trump-Musk moment was one of the big takeaways from the event.
