Overview

• The August 12 Uncle Sam recruitment post captioned “Which way, American man?” drew direct parallels to William Gayley Simpson’s 1978 antisemitic text Which Way, Western Man?
• The Anti-Defamation League and historians described the imagery as fresh evidence of white-supremacist dog-whistles, and Grok’s AI analysis flagged references such as double-capitalized “H”s.
• DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin dismissed the criticism as “tiresome,” saying the ad merely shows the United States at a crossroads in its future direction.
• The ICE hiring campaign backed by President Trump continues unabated, with DHS reporting roughly 100,000 applications and issuing no corrections to the contested posts.
• Observers link the “American man” ad to an ongoing series of nostalgic recruitment images—from Thomas Kinkade townscapes to John Gast’s American Progress—that critics say consistently echo extremist symbolism.