White House airs unedited N-word in video celebrating Maduro capture
The Trump administration's social media video has raised eyebrows after an unedited racial slur was shared by the White House's official X account, Newsweek reported Monday.
The video posted on Jan. 3 showed Nicolás Maduro speaking in Spanish and yelling "come and get me," followed by a clip from Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaking at a press conference and saying "if you don't know, now you know" — paired with the same lyrics from "Hypnotize," a 1997 hit from rapper The Notorious B.I.G.
The video cuts to shots of Maduro in custody and Trump walking by military officials inside the White House while the song plays out without any edits as the performer uses the N-word.
Previous reports have cited how the Trump administration has pressured ICE's public affairs team to quickly produce social media videos in a move to try and score viral hits. ICE has used music from artists — without licensing the songs or getting permission — which has come under fire from several artists, including Sabrina Carpenter and even Pokémon.
Several social media users reacted to the post.
"What was that at 0:13??" User Comet wrote on X.
"The US is acting like the United Mafia," user Hüseyin Gökalp wrote on X.
User Dede Watson shared an image on X with the following words in neon: "Another distraction for the Epsteinth time."