DHS caught red-handed using prominent artist's work to push MAGA agenda without permission
A new controversy is swirling around President Donald Trump’s Department of Homeland Security after a prominent Japanese artist accused the agency of using his artwork without permission to promote its hardline deportation agenda.
The latest uproar unfolded on New Year’s Eve after DHS posted an image to its X account showing a pristine, empty beach lined with palm trees and a vintage car – a visual instantly recognized by fans of Hiroshi Nagai, a 78-year-old Japanese graphic designer famous for his city pop and dreamscape depictions of 1950s Americana.
Over the image, DHS wrote, “America After 100 Million Deportations,” while the department’s caption on X declared, “The peace of a nation no longer besieged by the third world.”
Nagai quickly fired back, writing Tuesday in a post that has garnered over 5 million views: “The image is being used without permission from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. What should I do about this?”
Despite the objection, a DHS spokesperson appeared to double down, telling reporters the department “will continue using every tool at its disposal to keep the American people informed as our agents work to Make America Safe Again," according to media reports.
The incident involving Nagai’s art is the latest in a growing pattern of the agency ripping off artists’ work. Last summer, DHS used a painting by Thomas Kinkade without authorization, prompting the artist’s family to demand its removal and condemn both the post and DHS’s “deplorable actions,” the Guardian noted. Pop stars have also pushed back, including Olivia Rodrigo and Sabrina Carpenter, who both blasted the White House for using their music to promote the administration's MAGA agenda.
Critics on social media have urged Nagai to seek legal counsel. Immigration lawyer Greg Siskind summed up the backlash in his own post: “Promoting law and order apparently includes stealing an artist's protected work," he wrote Friday.
Meanwhile, X attached a message under DHS’s post saying, “This post uses Hiroshi Nagai’s artwork without permission. Hiroshi Nagai himself has also posted that his illustrations are being used without authorization.”