Norman Rockwell Was Antifa': Artist's Granddaughter Bashes Trump Admin for Hijacking His Art

"Throughout this first year of President Donald Trump's second term, federal government agencies have approached social media and other communications with an attitude far different than previous administrations, frequently using memes and aggressively insulting critics, political opponents, and the media and they've often run roughshod over both decorum and intellectual property rights in the process. The Defense Department was criticized by the publisher of the children's book series Franklin the Turtle for its unauthorized use of their reptilian protagonist."

"DHS has used or adapted Rockwell's art multiple times this year to promote its messages, horrifying the artist's granddaughter Daisy Rockwell, reported The Bulwark's Catherine Rampell, who interviewed her at the Norman Rockwell Museum in Massachusetts. Protect our American way of life, said the caption of a DHS tweet using Rockwell's Salute the Flag painting. Another post reproduced his famous 1946 painting of workers cleaning the Statue of Liberty, taking a symbol of welcome for the tired, poor and tempest-tost and superimposing upon it directives to PROTECT YOUR HOMELAND' and DEFEND YOUR CULTURE' by joining Trump's anti-immigrant goons, wrote Rampell."

Federal government agencies shifted toward aggressive social media tactics, including memes and insults targeting critics, opponents, and the media. Those tactics frequently ignored decorum and intellectual property rights. The Defense Department faced criticism for unauthorized use of a children's book character. The Department of Homeland Security posted memes criticized as echoing white supremacist slogans and received cease-and-desist demands for photo infringements. DHS repeatedly used or adapted Norman Rockwell paintings to promote protective, anti-immigrant messaging, including captions urging protection of American culture and homeland. Norman Rockwell's granddaughter expressed horror at the appropriation and its alignment with a segregationist vision.

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