Trump turned the White House website into a personal action hero reel
The Trump administration just redesigned the official White House website. Its new aesthetic might best be described as a personal action hero reel for the president.
The updated website design rolled out on January 22 in the wake of a broader relaunch of government sites by the new National Design Studio. It replaces the old homepage—which featured a banner image of Trump, the bolded phrase “America is Back,” and headshots of the first lady and vice president—with a decidedly more cinematic design.
Now, when people visit whitehouse.gov, they’re immediately greeted with a wall of videos, including shots of Trump sporting his own “Make America Great Again” merch, saluting military personnel, and taking off in a helicopter. Every shot is bathed in a warm, fuzzy filter, making the whole page feel like a retro-inspired movie trailer.
This design direction is part of a familiar playbook that’s come to define how the second Trump administration shows up online. On the surface, it touts a glossy, airbrushed version of the U.S., pulling from Americana aesthetics popularized in film and art. Underneath, though, is the ever-present subtext of Trump’s ideal vision for America.
One big movie trailer
With the new whitehouse.gov design, the Trump administration has sidelined a previously held ethos of communicating specific administrative goals in favor of evoking an emotional response from the viewer.
Historically, the official White House web page has maintained a consistent structure between presidencies. From Bush in 2008 to Obama in 2015, Biden in 2022, and even Trump himself in 2018, opening the web page would lead to a photo of the president, paired with a rundown of his current key objectives and a selection of top news stories.
Today, the entire home screen fills with a looping, 30-second highlight reel of Trump. Beneath this reel is a short statement lauding the second Trump administration’s successes, followed by five sections (each dedicated to an objective like “Secure the Border” and “Make America Healthy Again”).
To read more about the administration’s current aims, users have to click on one of these subsections or navigate to a separate header bar at the top of the page, which links out to additional resources, like a news, gallery, and livestream page.
The cumulative effect of these choices is that opening the whitehouse.gov page now feels less like getting a snapshot of the current administration’s goals, and more like watching five different advertisements at once. And, like any advertisement, these video clips are clearly designed to make the viewer feel something. From close-up shots of a man in a cowboy hat to wide views of a billowing American flag and a grainy clip of farmers at a Trump rally, each compilation leans on recognizable Americana aesthetics to generate a sense of patriotism.
Interspersed between feel-good shots of the president signing bills and shaking hands with children, the site includes clips of border patrol agents handling lengths of barbed wire, military helicopters taking off, and ICE agents gearing up and climbing into armored vehicles. The redesign comes just weeks after an ICE agent shot and killed Minnesota resident Renee Nicole Good, leading to ongoing tension and protests across the state.
In terms of connecting with its intended audience, this website design is undoubtedly effective. It plays into the ways that people are already consuming content online—through short, enticing bursts of video—to tell a glamorized story about the current administration. The same can be said for most of the recently revamped government websites: they trade an emphasis on clearly communicating information for scaffolding Trump’s vision for America’s future.
Ultimately, the aesthetic strength of this design is also its biggest shortcoming. At a time when the president should be building solidarity with his citizens, he’s instead designing a website that serves as a reminder that his government isn’t meant for everyone.