What Is WhiteHouse.gov Becoming?

"Last week, Donald Trump's White House anticipated the impending government shutdown like an album release, placing a massive countdown clock at the top of WhiteHouse.gov. "Democrat Shutdown Is Imminent," read the online home of the People's House, on a black background. Now that the shutdown has happened, a clock is counting upward: "Democrats Have Shut Down the Government," it says, with numbers climbing to mark the seconds, minutes, hours, and days that have elapsed."

"it had the goofy GeoCities look of the day (American-flag GIFs); by the start of George W. Bush's presidency, it had transitioned into a bland informational page rendered in blue, white, and gray, clotted with text. ("President Bush Participates in Signing Ceremony With NATO Secretary General De Hoop Scheffer for NATO Accession Protocols for Albania and Croatia," for example.) It stayed that way, with minor tweaks, throughout the Obama administration, and it was as dry as ever during Trump's first term too."

"But when Trump returned to office in January 2025, his transition team had a redesign ready to go. The first day, the website was transformed. Visitors saw an auto-playing trailer with an action-movie score-helicopter, jets, eagle, salute, thumbs-up, then a new White House logo in which said house was mostly black. After the video came a landing page with a photo of Trump and the message "AMERICA IS BACK" written in a new, spindly serif font on a dark navy background."

The White House website displayed a prominent countdown clock calling the shutdown imminent and later switched to a counting-up clock blaming Democrats for shutting down the government. Historically, WhiteHouse.gov presented straightforward informational pages, evolving from Clinton-era GeoCities-style visuals to bland, text-heavy layouts under subsequent administrations. On January 6, 2021, the homepage still highlighted COVID-19 vaccine information despite concurrent unrest. After the 2025 transition, the website underwent a dramatic redesign with an auto-playing, action-movie–style trailer, a largely black White House logo, and a landing page showing a photo of Trump with the message "AMERICA IS BACK."

Read at The Atlantic