Margaritas and “gang tattoos” – photo ops gone off the rails.
Authoritarian regimes use propaganda to distract from the truth.
Stalin did it. Mussolini did it. Trump’s doing it now.
Here’s how they game reality. ⬇️
Authoritarians want to look strong and in control.
So they stage photos, falsify images, and use media to mislead the public.
Bukele's people staged the margaritas to make it look like a casual hang out.
But no one drank them. It was a photo op.
Trump's regime is trying to convince us that Abrego Garcia’s knuckle tattoos are MS-13 tattoos.
But even ICE officials aren’t buying the spin.
One ICE source told The NY Post: “I’ve never heard of those resemblances being made.”nypost.com/2025/04/18/us-…
Trump’s regime has never entered the knuckle tattoo photo as evidence in court and courts have not found that Abrego Garcia was a member of the gang.
Why? Because it wouldn’t hold up.
Instead, they’re doing what autocrats do: use propaganda to trick you into believing them.
.@KaitlanCollins pressed Tom Homan, Trump's current “border czar” and former ICE Director + Project 2025 author over this on live TV.
Of course, he had no answer for why evidence Trump us pushing on social media hasn’t been entered as evidence in court.
Authoritarian regimes throughout history have staged photos, faked evidence, and used propaganda to control public perception.
From Stalin’s airbrushed out enemies to Mussolini’s macho photo ops – it’s a tactic as old as autocracy.
A few examples. ⬇️
Stalin had his enemies erased from photos.
One famous example is Yezhov, a top official who was later executed – and literally wiped from a famous picture.
Many other photos during his regime were staged and/or edited.
Authoritarians don’t just rewrite history. They edit it.
Mussolini riding shirtless on horseback? Totally staged.
The photos were choreographed by his PR team to mimic Roman emperors – power, virility, masculinity. He even posed with a sword.
It was fascist propaganda designed to craft a myth: not a man, but a legend.
Putin has built a whole aesthetic on manufactured masculinity – all part of an authoritarian image campaign.
None of it’s an accident. It’s propaganda.
More on this: brandeis.edu/writing-progra…
From staged margaritas to fake tattoos, the Trump regime is pulling from a classic authoritarian playbook.
Don’t get distracted. Don’t get numb.
Propaganda always starts subtle – then it becomes a weapon.
Call it what it is. And let's fight back before it’s too late.
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